Treatment strategy for benign nerve tumors

Abstract

Introduction: Peripheral nerve tumors are usually benign, rare, slow-growing and little symptomatic. The objective is to describe strategies for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with benign tumors of the ulnar nerve. Methods: This retrospective study of patients who underwent surgery between 2010 and 2015 for the treatment of benign tumor of the ulnar nerve analyzed patient symptoms and demographic characteristics, complementary examinations, and surgical techniques performed. Results: The study included 17 (8%) patients, with a prevalence of women (65%) in the fourth decade of life. The tumors tended to be extrinsic, with lipoma in 6 cases (35%); others were intrinsic, including schwannoma in 17% and hamartoma in 11% of the cases. Tumor excision was complete in 83% of cases and partial in 17% of cases; nerve decompression was performed in 12 cases. Conclusion: The strategies performed here yielded good functional results in 88% of patients. The worst results were in tumors of vascular origin.

Keywords

• ulnar nerve
• ulnar nerve compression syndromes
• neoplasms
• surgery, plastic
• microsurgery