When peripheral nerves are injured, they can have a significant impact on your quality of life leading to loss of function, numbness, weakness or persistent pain.
Nerves can be damaged in a number of ways. Damage usually stems from some type of injury, but that issue can initially go unrecognized. If your symptoms began following a previous trauma, sports injury, surgery or amputation, a nerve injury may be to blame.
FAQs
Is nerve damage fixable?
The good news is that nerve injuries can often be repaired. Dr. Chaiyasate is a peripheral nerve and microsurgery expert who can help you determine if nerve damage is the underlying cause of your symptoms and whether nerve repair may be an option for you. Dr. Chaiyasate provides the most up-to-date treatments and advanced surgical solutions to help resolve nerve pain, improve strength and mobility, and restore sensation and function in both the upper and lower extremities.
What do peripheral nerves do?
Nerves are part of the “electrical system” of the body. They act like wires, carrying signals to and from your brain, allowing us to interact with our surroundings. Motor nerves carry messages from the brain to muscles to make the body move. Sensory nerves send signals back to our brain, carrying the messages that allow us to feel touch, pain, pressure and temperature.
When nerve damage occurs, nerves can no longer carry messages properly. For example, if a sensory nerve is injured, you may not be able to feel a particular area of your body. If a motor nerve is injured, you may have weakness or be unable to perform certain movements. Nerve damage can also be the underlying cause of persistent pain.
What are common signs I may have a nerve injury?
- Pain lasting three months or more following an injury or surgical procedure
- Sharp shooting pains, buzzing or shock-like feelings
- Tingling, numbness or altered sensation
- Muscle weakness or loss of motor function
- Regularly dropping objects that you’re holding
- Full or partial loss of sensation
- Sensitivity to cold or heat
- Loss or decrease in function/fine motor skills
- Decreased muscle tone
How can nerves be injured or damaged?
Nerves are fragile and run throughout the body. They can be injured in more ways than you might think, but an injury to a nerve may not always be immediately recognized or obvious. Common causes include:
- Traumatic injuries
- Amputations
- Sharp cuts or lacerations (such as from a knife or glass)
- Fractures
- Sports injuries
- Prior surgery
- Compression or stretching injuries (such as stress fractures or torn ACLs)
In some cases, injuries lead to the formation of a neuroma, or a tangled mass of nerve and scar tissue that may develop and can lead to persistent pain.
How do nerves cause pain?
Many people may have never considered that pain might be the result of nerve damage, but it is often the underlying cause. Sometimes, the pain is caused by surrounding tissues compressing or entrapping the nerve and sometimes it is caused by a neuroma (a tangled mass of nerve and scar tissue that forms in the nerve).
When nerves are injured, they will naturally try to regrow or repair themselves. But when they’re damaged, they can’t do so properly, forming a neuroma. This can cause nerve signals to deviate course back to the brain, resulting in pain. Pain, numbness or tingling that lasts more than three months after a trauma, surgery, accident or injury may be a sign of nerve damage. You should consider being evaluated by a nerve surgeon as soon as possible.
How are nerve injuries treated?
Nerve repair is possible. Nerve surgeons like Dr. Chaiyasate specialize in the surgical repair of peripheral nerves and undergo extensive microsurgical training to become experts in their field. Some minor nerve injuries can resolve on their own. But many nerve injuries will not recover on their own and may require nerve repair surgery to help recover lost sensory or motor function or to address painful damage. The sooner the nerve injury is addressed, the better, in order to have the best outcomes.
How can nerve surgery address pain due to nerve damage?
The physical causes of nerve pain can be a neuroma, compression of the nerve, or both. The goal of nerve surgery is to identify the area of the nerve or nerves that are causing your symptoms, whether they be loss of function, numbness, weakness or persistent pain. Once the underlying cause is identified, the nerve is surgically addressed using specialized microsurgical techniques to repair the damage. The type of nerve repair performed depends on the symptoms you are experiencing, location of the injury and cause of the damage.
What happens during nerve surgery?
If a neuroma is identified as the cause of the pain, your surgeon will first locate and remove the neuroma. This gets rid of the painful stimulus and stops the pain signals to the brain. Then, depending on your specific nerve damage, your surgeon can repair the nerve by reconnecting the nerve with a nerve graft (autograft or allograft nerve) to allow restoration of normal signals to the brain, isolating the nerve end with a nerve cap to reduce the potential for neuroma formation, or by rerouting the nerves.
To repair a nerve compression or entrapment, your surgeon will need to release the traumatized tissue that’s compressing or constricting the nerve. This is often done by cutting or removing tissue in the area of constriction. Releasing the tissue relieves the pressure placed on the nerve and allows it to regain mobility and appropriate blood supply. The surgeon may decide to protect the nerve by placing fat around it, wrapping the nerve with vein tissue or using an off-the-shelf nerve protector.
How long will I be in the hospital?
Most nerve repair procedures are done on an outpatient basis. You may be asked to stay for observation for 24 hours, but generally, people are able to go home the same day.
What can I expect after nerve surgery?
Reduction or elimination of pain can be almost immediate. However, if your nerve is reconstructed, return of sensation or nerve function takes time and can feel a little strange. The nerve needs time to regrow from the point of injury to the target muscle or skin. Nerves regenerate slowly (at a rate of 1 mm per day), so the time for recovery depends on how far the nerve must grow and regenerate. You might notice the following sensations during the first six months after surgery, but they typically go away within 12 months: hot or cold sensations and sensitivity, little shocks or zaps, and aching or tingling feelings.
You don’t have to live with ongoing nerve pain or loss of function. With specialized expertise in peripheral nerve repair, Dr. Chaiyasate offers advanced solutions designed to restore movement, sensation, and quality of life.
Contact our office today to schedule your personalized evaluation—Please complete our online form or call us at (947) 274-8300.