Article

Final outcome after surgical repair of peripheral nerve transections varies.
Here, we present the first longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI) obserof cortical somatosensory reorganization patterns after surgery. A
43-year-old man presented with isolated complete transecof the right median nerve
and underwent immediate epineural end-to-end coaptation. Applying standardized
vibrotactile median nerve stimulation, 3 T brain activation maps were evaluated
at 1, 7, 15 weeks and 1 year after surgery. Initially, the affected hemisphere
showed no primary activation but increased frontoparietal activity. After 1 year,
primary activation had recovered, and frontoparietal activity was decreased
relative to the nonaffected hemisphere. Based on these longitudinal fMRI
patterns, we propose a new marker for restoration of somatosensory function,
which may not be provided by electrophysiological methods.

Langue : ANGLAIS