Nerve Injury Repair Hand eMedicine Plastics

Description: Nerve injury can be defined as a defect that results in a disruption of a nerve such that it can no longer transmit an action potential. A wide range of injury types and severities have been classified and should be considered. Two classification schemes have been practiced widely by clinicians to describe nerve injuries. The scheme proposed by Seddon in 1943 uses the terms neurapraxia, axonotmesis, and neurotmesis to describe the severity. The second scheme, proposed by Sunderland, divides the gamut of injury types into 5 degrees that overlap nicely with Seddon's but provide a more specific scale for grading patients.
Subhas Gupta, MD Updated June 2009