[Painful paresthesia after removal of the sural nerve for autologous nerve transplantation].

The sural nerve is the most common nerve serving as a donor in an autologeous nerve grafting procedure. However, there is a certain risk for the development of painful paraesthesias at the donor site. Patients in whom a short segment of the sural nerve was resected are suspected to have a greater risk. In a retrospective study we investigated the incidence of painful paraesthesias following removal of a segment of the sural nerve for a grafting procedure. The study includes 41 patients, who were followed at least for one year after surgery (mean 30 months). 9 patients (22%) complained of persisting painful paraesthesias at the donor site suggesting a neuroma at the proximal stump of the sural nerve. The comparison of the length of the nerve segment harvested for grafting shows a tendency for patients with shorter segments having a greater risk to develop painful paraesthesias. However, the difference between the two groups was statistically not significant.