Abstract
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.
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