Authors: Nadina-Liana Pop¹, Daniela-Rodica Mitrea¹, Andrada Elena Urdă-Cîmpean², Adriana Filip¹, Simona Clichici¹, Remus Orăsan¹
Affiliation
1Department of Physiology, Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy Cluj-Napoca, Romania
2 Department of Informatics and Biostatistics, Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Abstract
Peripheral nerve injuries have a large impact on the patient’s life quality. Depending on the localization and severity of the injury, patients may experience from moderate pain to severe muscle atrophy, sensitivity problems and impairment. Various treatments are used for the management of peripheral nerve injuries: drugs, physical therapy, electrical therapy, hydrotherapy, surgery. Physicians experience difficulties in successfully treating a peripheral nerve injury due to its different manifestations from one patient to another.
The current paper can become a useful tool for health care professionals to choose the most effective treatment for their patients by presenting the effects of presently used methods in peripheral nerve injury rehabilitation.
This paper is a review of some of the most common rehabilitation treatment strategies currently used for peripheral nerve injuries in which several studies were analysed to establish which of those methods have proven to be effective over time.
Physical therapy and occupational therapy should be used for all peripheral nerve injury patients. Electrical therapy, thermal therapy and hydrotherapy can be used for some patients but have inconsistent results and surgery is mostly the elective treatment for complete injuries.
Peripheral nerve injuries represent a complex medical problem and, although there are some treatment methods that have positive outcomes, the inconsistency regarding dosage and the treatment period and the lack of sufficient studies make recovery after peripheral nerve injuries a real challenge for physicians. More studies are required to fully understand why and also how some treatments have good results only on some patients and for establishing proper treatment protocols.
Key words: peripheral nerve injuries, rehabilitation, function
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