Traumatic peripheral nerve injuries in young Korean soldiers: a recent 10-year retrospective study

Abstract

Purpose: Traumatic peripheral nerve injury (PNI), which occurs in up to 3% of trauma patients, is adevastating condition that often leads to permanent disability. However, knowledge of traumaticPNI is limited. We describe epidemiology and clinical characteristics of traumatic PNI in Korea andidentify the predictors of traumatic complete PNI.Methods: A list of enlisted soldier patients who were discharged from military service due to PNIover a 10-year period (2012–2021) was obtained, and their medical records were reviewed. Patientswere classified according to the causative events (traumatic vs. nontraumatic) and injury severity(complete vs. incomplete). Of traumatic PNIs, we compared the clinical variables between the incompleteand complete PNI groups and identified predictors of complete PNI.Results: Of the 119 young male patients who were discharged from military service due to PNI, 85(71.4%) were injured by a traumatic event; among them, 22 (25.9%) were assessed as having a completeinjury. The most common PNI mechanism (n=49, 57.6%), was adjacent fractures or dislocations.Several injury-related characteristics were significantly associated with complete PNI: lacerationor gunshot wound, PNI involving the median nerve, PNI involving multiple individual nerves(multiple PNI), and concomitant muscular or vascular injuries. After adjusting for other possiblepredictors, multiple PNI was identified as a significant predictor of a complete PNI (odds ratio,3.583; P=0.017).Conclusions: In this study, we analyzed the characteristics of enlisted Korean soldiers dischargeddue to traumatic PNI and found that the most common injury mechanism was adjacent fracture ordislocation (57.6%). Patients with multiple PNI had a significantly increased risk of complete injury.The results of this study contribute to a better understanding of traumatic PNI, which directly leadsto a decline in functioning in patients with trauma.