Sports and peripheral nerve injury

Abstract

Peripheral nerve injury is one of the serious complications of athletic injuries; however, they have rarely been reported. According to the report by Takazawa et al., there were only 28 cases of peripheral nerve injury among 9,550 cases of sports injuries which had been treated in the previous 5 years at the clinic of the Japanese Athletic Association. The authors have encountered 1,167 cases of peripheral nerve injury during the past 18 years. Sixty-six of these cases were related to sports (5.7%). The nerves most frequently involved were: brachial plexus, radial nerve, ulnar, peroneal, and axillary nerves (in their order of frequency). The most common causes of such injuries were mountain climbing, gymnastics, and baseball. More often, peripheral nerve injury seemed to be caused by continuous compression and repeated trauma to the involved nerve. Usually it appeared as an entrapment neuropathy and the symptoms could be improved by conservative treatment. Some of the cases were complicated by fractures and surgical exploration became necessary. Results of treatment produced excellent to good improvement in 87.9% of the cases. With regard to compartment syndrome, the authors stress the importance of early and precise diagnosis and a fasciotomy.