Reactions to injury

Abstract

Nerves can be damaged in a number of ways: (1) ischaemia; (2) physical agents such as traction or stretching which may be sudden, intermittent or prolonged, pressure, distortion, cold, heat, severance, electric shock, injection of noxious substances, ionising radiation; (3) infection and inflammatory processes; (4) ingestion of drugs and metals; (5) infiltration by or pressure from tumours; (6) the effects of systemic disease. The damage to the nerve may be closed, or open through a wound of the skin. Damage may be acute or chronic; single, repeated or continuing. The lesion may affect the whole nerve or only part of it. The depth of affection may vary from fibre to fibre or from one part of the nerve to another. The nerve affected may be entirely healthy or may be the subject of a neuropathy from hereditary or systemic causes or from a more proximal affection. Nerve injury may be associated with damage to one or more important structures: artery, vein, viscus, bone, muscle or ligament. © 2011 Springer-Verlag London Limited.