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Your peripheral nerves control everything from the sensations you feel throughout your body to your ability to urinate and digest food. When a peripheral nerve is compromised, surgery can sometimes provide the best solution.
There are more than 100 different types of peripheral neuropathy, which is the medical term for nerve damage. Some forms of peripheral neuropathy, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, can leave you in pain, while others can affect your motor nerves and muscle control. Whatever the neuropathy, if it’s causing pain or interfering with your body’s function, you need solutions.
Dr. Ali H. Mesiwala and our team are prominent experts in the field of neurosurgery and we’ve helped scores of patients restore peripheral nerve function.
In the following, we review a few of the many examples in which we can restore nerve function through peripheral nerve surgery.
Understanding peripheral neuropathy
Your peripheral nervous system is a catchall category for all of the nerves that exist outside your central nervous system (your brain and your spinal cord). These nerves control everything from the sensations you feel to automatic functions, such as your heart rate and breathing.
There are many ways this vast network of nerves can become damaged and some of the more common include:
- Direct nerve damage, such as a severed nerve
- Diabetic neuropathy
- Entrapment (nerve compression)
- Tumors
- Autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis or lupus
- Infections, such as Lyme disease or hepatitis B and C
Of these causes of peripheral neuropathy, diabetic neuropathy and entrapment are the most common.
Remedying nerve damage with surgery
As a board-certified neurosurgeon, Dr. Mesiwala excels in restoring nerve function surgically. To give you an idea of what Dr. Mesiwala can accomplish, let’s take a look at a few examples:
Nerve repair
If you’ve had a direct trauma or injury that caused damage to one of your nerves, Dr. Mesiwala can repair the damage by reattaching the two ends of the severed nerve.
Nerve entrapment
When a nerve becomes entrapped, it can lead to pain and malfunction. For example, carpal tunnel syndrome is a condition in which the median nerve that passes through your wrist becomes compressed in your carpal tunnel, which can lead to pain, tingling, and numbness in your hand.
Similar examples include cubital tunnel syndrome — a nerve becomes entrapped in your elbow; peroneal nerve compression — a nerve in your knee is entrapped, which can lead to foot drop; and tarsal tunnel syndrome — a nerve that travels through your ankle to your foot becomes compressed.
With each of these conditions, Dr. Mesiwala’s goal is to go in surgically to release the pressure on the nerve.
Tumors
If you have a tumor that’s interfering with one of your peripheral nerve groups, Dr. Mesiwala is an expert in tumor removal. Using the most advanced microsurgical techniques available, he delicately and precisely removes the tumor while taking care to keep the affected nerves intact.
These are some of the more common examples of peripheral neuropathy conditions that can benefit from surgical intervention, but there are more.
Treatment
Dr. Mesiwala also has the ability to implant Neuromodulation devices/stimulators to treat complex regional pain syndrome, chronic pain syndromes, and peripheral neuropathies. He accomplishes this by placing precisely positioned electrodes and connecting them to an implantable generator. These electrodes can be placed on the outside of the spinal cord (spinal cord stimulator), dorsal root ganglion (DRG stimulator), along a peripheral nerve (PNS), and/or into a muscle in the low back (for treatment of low back pain).
Treatment of peripheral nerve syndromes requires experience, knowledge of the latest technologies, and a thorough work up. Dr. Mesiwala brings his decades of experience to properly diagnose patients and employs the latest techniques to comprehensively treat his patients’ neuropathic conditions. Additionally, he is regularly involved in research, development and is faculty for these types of procedures.
Whatever form of peripheral neuropathy is affecting you, a great step toward relief is to contact one of our offices in Newport Beach, Marina del Rey, Rancho Cucamonga, or San Bernardino, California, to find out whether we can help through peripheral nerve surgery.