Femoral Nerve Injury After Resection of a Retroperitoneal Schwannoma Arising From the Femoral Nerve

TL;DR

A patient developed femoral nerve injury after surgery for a retroperitoneal tumor and recovered with a nerve graft from the sural nerve.

Contribution

Demonstrates successful recovery from femoral nerve injury using an autologous sural nerve graft after tumor resection.

Findings

Femoral nerve injury occurred after retroperitoneal tumor resection in a 27-year-old woman.

An autologous sural nerve graft was used to repair the injury.

Three years post-surgery, the patient regained significant muscle strength and walked without crutches.

Abstract

This report describes a case of femoral nerve injury resulting from retroperitoneal tumor resection, which was successfully treated with an autologous nerve graft using the sural nerve. The patient, a 27-year-old woman, had gait disturbance and sensory loss in her lower limbs following surgery and was referred to the department at four months postoperatively. Lower extremity muscle strength testing showed that the left quadriceps muscle was decreased to 0-1 on Manual Muscle Testing (MMT), and there was sensory loss in front of the thigh to the medial side of the lower leg. The surgery was performed using an ilioinguinal approach, and the cable graft made from the sural nerve was implanted. At three years postoperatively, the quadriceps muscle had recovered to MMT3, and the patient was able to walk stably without crutches. An autologous nerve graft is a useful procedure for patients with good recovery prospects.

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