J Korean Fract Soc.  2008 Jul;21(3):240-243. 10.12671/jkfs.2008.21.3.240.

Medial Transposition of Radial Nerve in Distal Humerus Shaft Fracture: A Report of Six Cases

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Orthopedic Surgery, St. Mary's Hospital, Seoul, Korea. skrhee@catholic.ac.kr
  • 2Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Daejeon St. Mary's Hospital, Daejeon, Korea.

Abstract

Sometimes serious tension occurs in the radial nerve when doing internal fixation for distal humerus shaft fracture or neurorrhaphy for radial nerve injury. Medial transposition of radial nerve on fracture site can avoid direct radial nerve injury by fracture fragment, radial nerve tension by plating for distal humerus shaft fracture, and also safe from neural tension during neurorrhaphy of damaged radial nerve. We reported here total 6 cases of backward transposition of radial nerve including 2 cases of radial nerve injury associated with humerus fracture and 4 cases of comminuted fracture of humerus shaft.

Keyword

Humerus; Radial nerve; Distal shaft fracture; Nerve injury; Medial transposition

MeSH Terms

Fractures, Comminuted
Humerus
Radial Nerve

Figure

  • Fig. 1 (A) Clinical photograph showing complete rupture of radial nerve with nerve gap. (B) After removal of plate & screws, 2 cm nerve gap was found. (C) After sufficient mobilization, and neurorrhaphy of ruptured radial nerve through fracture site, the nerve (arrow) was transposed on backside of humerus without tension.

  • Fig. 2 (A) Plain X-ray & CT image showing distal humerus comminuted fracture extending to articular surface. (B) Radial nerve (arrow) overlying fracture site in the operative findings. (C) Clinical photograph showing radial nerve without tension behind fracture site after plate fixation and medial transposition of nerve. (D) Postoperatively, X-ray shows good reduction without neurologic deficits.


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Bong Gun Lee, Ki Chul Park, Youn Ho Choi, Woo Sung Jung, Kyu Tae Hwang
J Korean Fract Soc. 2012;25(4):327-330.    doi: 10.12671/jkfs.2012.25.4.327.


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