• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.136-142
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• 2021

Purpose: Oral and facial sensation is affected by various factors, including trauma and disease. This study assessed the clinical profile of patients diagnosed with sensory dysfunction and investigated their sensory perception using simple qualitative sensory tests. Methods: Based on a retrospective review of the medical records, we analyzed a total of 68 trigeminal nerve branches associated with sensory dysfunction in 52 subjects. We analyzed the frequency and etiology of sensory dysfunction, and the frequency of different types of sensory perception in response to qualitative sensory testing using tactile and pin-prick stimuli. Results: The inferior alveolar nerve branch was the most frequently involved in sensory dysfunction (88.5%). Third molar extraction (36.5%) and implant surgery (36.5%) were the most frequent etiological factors associated with sensory dysfunction. Hypoesthesia was the most frequent sensory response to tactile stimuli (60.3%). Pin-prick stimuli elicited hyperalgesia, hypoalgesia, and analgesia in 32.4%, 27.9%, and 36.8%, respectively. A significant association was found between the two kinds of stimuli (p=0.260). Conclusions: Sensory dysfunction frequently occurs in the branches of the trigeminal nerve, including the inferior alveolar nerve, mainly due to trauma associated with dental treatment. Simple qualitative sensory testing can be conveniently used to screen sensory dysfunction in patients with altered sensation involving oral and facial regions.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.250-257
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• 2001

Sensory dysfunction following the injury of the inferior alveolar nerve requires objective examination to get a reproducible data and to provide necessary treatment. This study was designed to evaluate if the SEP(somatosensory evoked potentials) of the mental nerve can be used as an objective method for the diagnosis of nerve injury and sensory disturbances. The subjects were nineteen patients ($37.4{\pm}11.3$ years old) who had been suffered from sensory disturbance of the unilateral lower lip and mental region for over 6 months after the inferior alveolar nerve injuries confirmed by the microsurgical explorations. The clinical neurosensory tests as SLTD(static light touch discrimination), MDD(moving direction discrimination), 2PD(two point discrimination), PPN(pin prick nociception) and accompanied pain were preceded to electro-physiologic examinations as SEP. The score of sensory dysfunction (sum score of all sensory tests) ranged from 0 to 8 were compared to the latency differences of the mental nerve SEPs. The correlation between clinical sensory scores and SEPs were tested by Spearman nonparametric rank correlation analysis, the differences in SEP latency by Kruskal-Wallis test and the latency differences according to PPN and accompanied pain by Mann-Whitney U test. This study resulted that the difference of the latencies between normal side and affected side was $2.22{\pm}2.46$ msec and correlated significantly with the neurosensory dysfunction scores (p=0.0001). Conclusively, the somatosensory evoked potentials of the mental nerve can be a useful diagnostic method to evaluate the inferior alveolar nerve injuries and the change of sensory dysfunction to be reproduced as an objective assessment.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.53-60
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• 2002

Neurosensory dysfunction of the injured inferior alveolarnerve(IAN) is a common and distrssing consequence of traumatic or iatrogenic injury. Conventional neurosensory testing has been used to detect and monitor sensory impairments of the injured IAN. However, these tests had low reliability and are not qualitative at best because they are based on solely on the patient's subjective assesment of symptoms. Consequently, there is need for more reliable, sensitive, and objective test measures to document and to monitor sensory dysfunction of the trigeminal nerve. This study was to investigate DITI's (digital infrared thermographic imaging) potential as a diagnostic alternative for evaluating of the nerve injures and sensory disturbance. Subjects were 30 patients who had been referred to Ewha Medical Center due to sensory disturbance of the lower lip and chin followed after unobserved inferior alveolar nerve injuries. The patients were examined by clinical neurosensory tests as SLTD (static light touch discrimination), MDD (moving direction discrimination), PPN (pin prick nociception) and DITI (digital infrared thermographic imaging). The correlation between clinical sensory dysfunction scores(Sum of SLTD, MDD, PPN, NP, Tinel sign) and DITI were tested by Spearman nonparametric rank correlation anaylsis & Kruskal-Wallis test, Wilcoxon 2-sample test. This study resulted in as follows; (1) The difference of thermal difference between normal side and affected side was as ${\Delta}-3.2{\pm}0.13$. (2) The DITI differences of the subjects presenting dysesthesia of the lip and chin were correlated significantly with the neurosensory dysfunction scores(r=0.419, p=0.021)and SLTD (r=0.429, p<0.05). (3) The MDD, PPN, NP, Tinel sign, duration, gender were not correlated with DITI(p> 0.05). Therefore, the DITI(digital infrared thermographic imaging) can be an option of the useful objective diagnostic methods to evaluate the injured inferior alveolar nerve and sensory dysfunction of trigerminal nerve.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.559-566
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• 2020

Background Infraorbital nerve dysfunction is commonly reported after zygomaticomaxillary complex fractures. We evaluated sensory changes in four designated areas (eyelid, nose, zygoma, and lip) innervated by the infraorbital nerve. This evaluation was conducted using the static two-point discrimination test and the vibration threshold test. We assessed the diagnostic significance of the blink reflex in patients with infraorbital nerve dysfunction. Methods This study included 18 patients, all of whom complained of some degree of infraorbital nerve dysfunction preoperatively. A visual analog scale, the infraorbital blink reflex, static two-point discrimination, and the vibration threshold were assessed preoperatively, at 1 month postoperatively (T1), and at a final follow-up that took place at least 4 months postoperatively (T4). The results were analyzed using a multilevel generalized linear mixed model. Results Scores on the visual analog scale significantly improved at T1 and T4. The infraorbital blink reflex significantly improved at T4. Visual analog scale scores improved more rapidly than the infraorbital blink reflex. Two-point discrimination significantly improved in all areas at T4, and the vibration perception threshold significantly improved in the eyelid at T4. Conclusions Recovery of the infraorbital blink reflex reflected the recovery of infraorbital nerve dysfunction. We also determined that the lip tended to recover later than the other areas innervated by the infraorbital nerve.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.42
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• pp.16.1-16.8
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• 2020

Background: Cyst enucleation, which extracts only the tumor with the application of Carnoy's solution (CS), has been suggested as a conservative treatment with a low recurrence rate and morbidity. However, there has been a concern that CS's contact with inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) can cause neurons to degenerate and cause sensory dysfunction. The purpose of this retrospective cohort study aimed to investigate the neurosensory function after surgical treatment with or without the application of CS. Methods: While controlling the effects of sex, age, follow-up period, and invasion size of the tumor, we performed the binary logistic regression analysis to examine whether or not the sensory function of the patients who were treated with CS (n = 19) for the cyst enucleation procedure was significantly different from those who were not treated with CS (n = 58) at the end of the follow-up period. Results: The logistic regression result showed that the use of CS was not significantly related to the normalness of sensory function at the end of the follow-up period. Rather, the invasion size of the cyst was significantly associated with sensory dysfunction. Conclusions: CS may be used for patients who are diagnosed with OKC and UAM without much fear of its impact on sensory dysfunction. However, a small number of patients who were treated with CS experienced severe sensory damage and did not recover at the end of the follow-up period, suggesting the need for further analysis of these patients.

• Journal of Medicine and Life Science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.101-104
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• 2018

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common entrapment neuropathy caused by focal compression of the median nerve in the carpal tunnel. However, many patients with CTS, who are diagnosed clinically and confirmed with electrophysiological studies, complain of the sensory symptoms extends to the ulnar nerve territory. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether a dysfunction in sensory fibers of the ulnar nerve was present or not in hands with CTS patients who had extramedian spread of sensory symptoms over the hand. We retrospectively analyzed the recording of the subjects who were diagnosed with CTS within a one-year-period of time. After exclusions, 136 hands recordings of 87 patient were included. We compared the results of median and ulnar nerve sensory conduction studies between normal hands and hands with CTS. We did not detect statistically significant difference on all parameters of ulnar nerve sensory conduction studies between the normal hands and the hands with CTS. The parameters of the obtained in median nerve sensory conduction studies were statistically different between the healthy control and CTS patients. The hands with CTS showed similar rate of ulnar sensory conduction abnormalities compared with the normal hands. In conclusion, our study showed that none of the parameters in ulnar sensory nerve conduction studies differ between two groups. Accordingly, our study revealed that ulnar nerve involvement does not contribute in CTS patients underlying the spread of paresthesia extends to the ulnar nerve territory.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.427-439
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• 2022

Peripheral nerve injuries (PNIs) often present with variable symptoms, making them difficult to diagnose, treat, and monitor. When neurologic compromise is inadequately assessed, suboptimal treatment decisions can result in lasting functional deficits. There are many available tools for evaluating pain and functional status of peripheral nerves. However, the literature lacks a detailed, comprehensive view of the data comparing the clinical utility of these modalities, and there is no consensus on the optimal algorithm for sensory and pain assessment in PNIs. We performed a systematic review of the literature focused on clinical data, evaluating pain and sensory assessment methods in peripheral nerves. We searched through multiple databases, including PubMed/Medline, Embase, and Google Scholar, to identify studies that assessed assessment tools and explored their advantages and disadvantages. A total of 66 studies were selected that assessed various tools used to assess patient's pain and sensory recovery after a PNI. This review may serve as a guide to select the most appropriate assessment tools for monitoring nerve pain and/or sensory function both pre- and postoperatively. As the surgeons work to improve treatments for PNI and dysfunction, identifying the most appropriate existing measures of success and future directions for improved algorithms could lead to improved patient outcomes.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.679-700
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• 1996

Inferior alveolar nerve dysfunction may be the result of trauma, disease, or iatrogenic injury. Inferior alveolar nerve injury is inherent risk in endodontic therapy, orthognathic surgery of the mandible, and extraction of mandibular teeth, particularly the third molars. The sensory disturbances of inferior alveolar nerve associated with such injury have been well documented clinical problem that is commonly evaluated by several clinical sensory test including Tinels sign, Von Frey test(static light touch detection), directional discrimination, two-point discrimination, pin pressure nociceptive discrimination, and thermal test. These methods used to detect and assess inferior alveolar nerve injury have been subjective in nature, relying on the cooperation of the patients. In addition, many of these techniques are sensitive to differences in the examiners experience and skill with the particular technique. Data obtained at different times or by different examiners are therefore difficult to compare. Prior experimental studies have used electro diagnostic methods(sensory evoked potential) to objectively evaluate inferior alveolar nerve after nerve injury. This study was designed with inferior alveolar nerve of rabbit. Several types of injury including mind, moderate, severe compression and perforation with 19 gauze, 21 gauze needle and 6mm, 10mm traction were applied for taking the sesory evoked ppterntial. Latency and amplitude of injury rabbit inferior alveolar nerve were investigated with sensory evoked potential using unpaired t-test. The results were as follows : 1. Intensity of threshold (T1) was $128{\pm}16{\mu}A$ : latency, $0.87{\pm}0.07$ microsecond : amplitude, $0.4{\pm}0.1{\mu}V$ : conduction velocity, 23.3 m/s in sensory evoked potential of uninjured rabbit inferior alveolar nerve. 2. Rabbit inferior alveolar nerve consists of type II and III sensory nerve fiber. 3. Latency was increased and amplitude was decreased in compression injury. The more injured, the more changed in latency and amplitude. 4. Findings in perforation injury was similar to compression injury. Waveform for sensory evoked potential improved by increasing postinjured time. 5. Increasing latency was prominent in traction injury rabbit inferior alveolar nerve. 6. In microscopic histopathological findings, significant degeneration and disorganization of the internal architecture were seen in nerve facicle of severe compression and 10mm traction group. From the above findings, electrophysiological assessment(sensory evoked potential) of rabbit injured inferior alveolar nerve is reliable technique in diagnosis and prognosis of nerve injury.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.65-68
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• 1994

Carpal tunnel syndrome is the most common compressive neuropathy of the upper extremity. Clinical manifestations include pain as well as motor and sensory dysfunction in the distribution of the median nerve. As nonoperative treatment, median nerve block is performed to relieve pain for carpal tunnel syndrome. We have experienced 5 such cases. Our results support median nerve block as an excellent treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome.

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.131-135
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• 2024

Cubital tunnel syndrome refers to compression neuropathy caused by pressure on the ulnar nerve pathway around the elbow. A 63-year-old male patient visited the clinic complaining of decreased sensation and weakness in his left ring finger and little finger, stating that the symptoms first began 6 months prior. He had undergone surgery to remove a ganglion cyst from his left elbow joint about 5 years prior in Mongolia. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a cystic mass located at the previous surgical site, which was compressing the ulnar nerve within the cubital tunnel. Ulnar nerve decompression and anterior transposition were performed, and the cystic mass was excised. Upon pathological examination, the mass was diagnosed as a ganglion cyst. The patient's symptoms including sensory dysfunction and weakness improved over the 1-year follow-up period. This report describes a rare case of ganglion cyst recurrence compressing the ulnar nerve in the cubital tunnel after previous ganglion cyst excision.