[Peripheral nerve surgery in leprosy]. / La chirurgie des nerfs périphériques dans la lèpre.

Leprosy has nearly disappeared in France but continues to affect two million patients in the world. Involvement of the peripheral nerve must be identified and requires surgical treatment, which can provide good results for pain and function. The author reviews the most frequently affected peripheral nerves and reports her personal series, with surgery performed concomitantly with the medical treatment of the disease.

[Surgical treatment of leprous neuritis. The results in 114 operations]. / Traitement chirurgical des névrites lépreuses. Résultats de 114 interventions.

One hundred and fourteen surgical operations for neuritis were performed in 50 patients coming from areas where leprosy is endemic. The neurological signs included pain and/or sensorimotor deficit. The surgical procedure consisted of transposition and/or neurolysis. Pain subsided in 86 per cent of the cases, and the sensorimotor deficit was reduced in 78.9 per cent. The effects of surgery on pain always appeared on recovery from anaesthesia or on the day following the operation. The results were particularly good in young subjects and in patients with neurological signs of recent onset. Poor results were observed only in cases of old and painless neuritis with motor deficit, the latter being usually unchanged. Few studies have been published on large series of leprous neuritis patients treated surgically. Surgery in such cases must be associated with a medical treatment, failing which the patient is exposed to relapses.