Sensory Recovery Outcome after Digital Nerve Repair in Relation to Different Reconstructive Techniques: Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review

Table 4

Nerve graft.

Treatment	Author	Pub. date	Nerves with follow-up	Age (mean)	Age (range)	Follow-up time (mean)	Follow-up time (range)	Timing of repair	Gap length (mean)	Gap length (range)	S0–S3 in %	S3+ in %	S4 in %	Glickman and Mackinnon [25]
Nerve graft	Seddon	1947	15	—	>18 y	—	2–4 y	—	—	3–8 cm	82	6	12	+
Since 1965 surgical microscope
	McFarlane	1976	13	38 y	20–59 y	1.2 y	0.6–1.9 y	—	—	1.5–3.5 cm	54	46	0	+
	Wilgis	1979	11	—	17–54	—	0.9–2 y	—	—	1–2.5 cm	0	33	67	+
	Young	1979	27	27 y	15–57 y	—	0.5–5 y	—	—	>2 cm	60	25	15	+
	Yamano	1982	5	44 y	28–56 y	2.2 y	2–2.5 y	Sec.	3.4 cm	2–5 cm	0	100	0	+
	Tenny***	1984	42	28 y	9–59 y	2.5 y	0.5–5.7 y	—	2 cm	0.5–6 cm	24	36	40
	Beazley	1984	12	—	0.5–71 y	—	2–6 y	—	—	1–5 cm	42	58	0	+
	Rose	1985	5	—	>18 y	—	3–7 y	—	—	5–8 cm	20	20	60	+
	Rose	1989	13	—	19–55 y	1 y	—	—	4.5 cm	—	7	55	38	+
	Nunley	1989	21	29 y	16–51 y	4.7 y	2–7.4 y	All	2.5 y	1.5–4 cm	14	57	29
	Chiu	1990	4	37 y	19–61 y	2 y	1.2–2.75 y	All	2.7 cm	1.8–3 cm	0	100	0
	Mackinnon	1990	31	—	18–62 y	6 y	—	—	—	1–5 cm	6	40	54	+
	Dumontier	1990	14	27 y	7–53 y	3.6 y	1–7.7 y	All	2.5 cm	1.5–3 cm	79	14	7
	Eisenschenk	1993	96	36 y	16–68 y	7.25 y	1–15.5 y	All	2.2 cm	1–6 cm	59	29	12
	Kracht	1993	22	—	2–66 y	2.8 y	1–5 y	All	—	—	64	36	0
	Wang*	1996	14	—	18–79	—	≥1 y	All	3 cm	1.5–6 cm	14	36	50
	Inoue**	2002	3	26 y	18–31 y	0.8 y	0.5–1 y	All	1.3 cm	1–1.5 cm	0	0	100
	Schonauer^**  ***	2008	8	23 y	23 y	1 y	1 y	—	—	—	0	100	0
	Chiu**	2009	1	17 y	17 y	0.5 y	0.5 y	Sec.	2 cm	2 cm	0	0	100
	Karabekmez	2009	8	44 y	23–65 y	0.75 y	0.4–1 y	—	2.2 cm	0.5–3 cm	0	37	63
	Sommer	2009	4	27 y	13–68 y	4.2 y	1.3–7.3 y	All	—	—	0	0	100
	Laveaux	2010	15	33 y	13–56 y	16.8 y	11.6–23.7 y	—	—	≤3 cm	20	67	13

Listings of treatment, author, publication date (pub. date), nerves with follow-up, age (mean and range; y: year), follow-up time (mean and range), timing of repair (all: primary and secondary; sec.: secondary), gap length (mean and range), sensory recovery (S0–3, S3+, and S4), and Glickman and Mackinnon [25] (+: publication already mentioned in Glickman and Mackinnon [25]); *: not 100% conform with the Highet classification/≤7 mm: 7 patients/8–15 mm: 2 patients/>15 mm: 5 patients/patients with S4 could be more; **: case report; ***: Y-shaped nerve grafts.