Peripheral Nerve Injuries Presenting to a Tertiary Care Hospital an Experience with 40 Patients

Abstract

Objective: To study the different aspects of peripheral nerve injury presenting to a tertiary care hospital.
Material and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted in Neurosurgery Department of PGMI, Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar from June 2009 to June 2011. A total number of 40 patients were studied through randomized sampling technique. The study included patients of all age groups and both gender. All patients who presented at the time of injury and up to duration of 9 months since time of injury were included in the study. Patients with injection injury and traction injury were excluded. All the data was collected by using a Proforma. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistics using SPSS software version 17.
Results: Majority of the patients were male, 36 (90%) and 4 (10%) were female. Gunshot injury was the commonest cause 23 (57.5%). The commonest affected age group was 20 – 30 years (37.5%). Children below 10 years and people above 60 years of age were least affected. Peripheral nerve injuries due to Bomb blasts were 4 (10%) followed by Glass injuries. Iatrogenic nerve injury in orthopaedic and general surgical procedures was in 3(7.5%) patients. Injuries with sharp weapons such as knife and stabs were seen in 4 (10%) patients. Two patients were having concomitant vascular injury. Patients with sharp injuries had excellent results while patients in whome the cause was fire arm injury the results were not much promising. All the patients were followed up for maximum period of more than 1.5 years.
Conclusion: Majority of our patients were male. Major etiological factor was firearm and bomb blast injuries in our study. Furthermore, patients with sharp injuries had excellent results.