How to recover a severed finger nerve

Many things in people's work and life need to be done with hands. Some technical work is done by pointing hands. The flexibility of fingers determines the quality of the technology. Accidents always happen in life. Some skilled workers who earn money and support their families with their hands will lose their livelihood if their fingers are injured. How to recover if the nerve in the finger is severed? Let’s learn how to treat hand nerve damage~ Cuts, stab wounds, hand trauma and forearm trauma can all cause hand nerve damage.

1. Prevention of hand nerve damage

The prevention of traumatic hand nerve injury mainly involves strengthening labor protection, intensifying pre-job training, and enhancing workers' work proficiency. For compression nerve injuries, early treatment of the primary disease and reduction of strain are the best means of prevention.

Secondhand nerve injury complications

1. Fractures or dislocations combined with nerve injuries are very common, mostly caused by the dislocation of the fracture ends compressing the nerves. Nerve strain may also occur during fracture dislocation or manual reduction, and the sharp bone ends can sometimes pierce the nerves.

2. When nerves are ischemic and contracted, they are often partially paralyzed. If the compression can be relieved in time, partial or complete recovery is expected. If delayed too long, severe and permanent paralysis may occur.

3. Western medicine treatment of hand nerve damage

1. Treatment

In principle, the earlier the nerve damage in the hand is repaired, the better the functional recovery. As long as the nerve damage is relatively minor, the stumps are relatively neat, and there is no obvious defect; the skin coverage is good, the wound is lightly contaminated, and it is estimated that there will be no infection after debridement, direct suture should be performed immediately in the first stage. The main method of hand nerve repair is nerve suturing (including epineurial suturing and perineurial suturing). Generally speaking, epineurial suturing is used when the nerve trunk is injured, and perineurial suturing should be used when the sensory and motor branches of the nerve can be separated. For example, when the ulnar nerve is injured at the wrist, the deep and superficial branches of the ulnar nerve can be separated and the perineurial suturing can be performed separately. If there is tension during nerve suturing, it can be overcome by freeing the two nerve ends appropriately, changing the position of the joints (such as flexing the wrist when suturing the median nerve), and performing nerve transposition (such as if the ulnar nerve is broken behind the elbow, move the two ends of the ulnar nerve to the front of the elbow and suture the nerve in the flexed elbow position. At this time, in order to suture the ulnar nerve in situ behind the elbow, the elbow joint must not be fixed in the extended position for a long time, which will affect the functional recovery of the elbow joint). Even if the nerve defect is too large to be sutured directly, a primary nerve transplant can be performed as long as the local soft tissue conditions are good. In order to avoid sensory loss after nerve harvesting in the donor area, the distal end of the harvested nerve can be sutured to the adjacent normal nerve trunk using an end-to-side anastomosis method. The sensory function can be restored through the sprouting of collateral branches of the normal nerve trunk and the ingrown regenerated nerve fibers.

When the nerve is partially injured, the uninjured part should be carefully separated and protected, while the injured part should be cleaned and sutured.

After the operation, a plaster splint is used to properly fix the affected limb and keep the sutured nerve in a relaxed position to facilitate its healing. The fixation time is generally 4 to 6 weeks, depending on the tension during suturing. Antimicrobial drugs should be used appropriately to prevent infection, and neurotrophic drugs should be used appropriately to promote nerve regeneration.

After the fixation is removed, functional exercises should be performed as much as possible, supplemented by physical therapy. Functional exercise and local physical therapy play a certain role in promoting nerve regeneration and preventing muscle atrophy.

The restoration of nerve function is very important to the function of the hand. Before the feeling in the hand is restored, special attention should be paid to protecting the injured limb to avoid burns or frostbite, if this occurs, the wound will be difficult to heal. In the early stages of sensory recovery, hyperesthesia is usually present. Over time, as the regenerated nerves mature, the hyperesthesia will gradually disappear.

(II) Prognosis

The effect after sensory nerve anastomosis is acceptable, but the effect after motor nerve anastomosis is poor.

4. TCM treatment of hand nerve damage

There is currently no treatment for this disease.