Abstract
Chronic pain resulting from peripheral nerve injury remains a common issue in the
United States and affects 7 to 10% of the population. Regenerative Peripheral Nerve
Interface (RPNI) surgery is an innovative surgical procedure designed to treat posttraumatic
neuropathic pain, particularly when a symptomatic neuroma is present on clinical exam.
RPNI surgery involves implantation of a transected peripheral nerve into an autologous
free muscle graft to provide denervated targets to regenerating axons. RPNI surgery
has been found in animal and human studies to be highly effective in addressing postamputation
pain. While most studies have reported its uses in the amputation patient population
for the treatment of neuroma and phantom limb pain, RPNI surgery has recently been
used to address refractory headache, postmastectomy pain, and painful donor sites
from the harvest of neurotized flaps. This review summarizes the current understanding
of RPNI surgery for the treatment of chronic neuropathic pain.
Keywords
RPNI - chronic pain - amputation - neuropathic
