What causes sural nerve neuropathy?
Sural neuritis (a.k.a. sural neuralgia) is pain that occurs due to irritation or injury of the sural nerve. The pain is typically described as a burning sensation located on the outside of the foot and ankle. It may occur following surgery of the foot and ankle or after a direct injury to the nerve itself.
What nerve innervates the lateral malleolus?
| Sural nerve | |
|---|---|
| The small saphenous vein (sural nerve visible running vertically) | |
| Details | |
| From | Medial sural cutaneous nerve, communicating branch with the common fibular nerve (S1, S2) |
| Innervates | Supplies sensation to the skin of the lateral foot and lateral lower ankle. |
What happens if the sural nerve is damaged?
Damage or compression of the sural nerve can result in burning pain and diminished sensation or loss of sensation (numbness). This nerve passes down from the back of the knee along the outside of the lower leg. It’s located along the surface of the lower one-third of the leg.
What does sural nerve innervate?
The sural nerve is purely sensory and it supplies sensation to the lower lateral leg, lateral heel, ankle and dorsal lateral foot.
How deep is the sural nerve?
The union can occur 3 cm below the origin of the peroneal communicating nerve. The two branches of the sural nerve can arise 3 cm apart about 10 cm above the knee and pierce the medial head of the gastrocnemius muscle before joining the peroneal communicating nerve.
How do you test for sural nerves?
Sural nerve neurodynamic test To perform this test, the patient’s leg is grasped by the therapist’s hands so that the leg is supported and the foot is held in dorsiflexion and inversion. The leg is then passively raised into hip flexion. This is usually felt in the posterolateral calf and/or posterolateral ankle.
How do you stretch the sural nerve?
Sural Nerve Flossing Gliding Exercises Lay on your back. Pull the affected knee towards the chest, supported by your hands. Gently straighten leg by lifting foot towards the ceiling until a light stretch is felt. Slowly turn your foot towards the inside and bend your ankle towards you.
How do you tension the sural nerve?
It is possible to place the sural nerve under tension, similar to doing a slump or a SLR, by extending the knee and dorsiflexing the ankle. This may aggravate the sural nerve if it is irritated. Much of the examination should be to clear the knee and ankle, and rule out stress fractures of tibia, fibula, or calcaneus.
What are the symptoms of sural nerve neuropathy?
Signs and Symptoms of Sural Nerve Neuropathy. Some of the other common symptoms of sural nerve neuropathy include shooting spasms, burning, hypersensitivity to the area, pain, numbness, and even weakness in the area surrounding the nerve. An individual with sural nerve neuropathy may also experience a reduction in motor functioning.
What are the two nerves that make up the sural nerve?
In simple terms, there are two sural nerves – the medial sural cutaneous nerve and lateral sural cutaneous nerve – and these eventually join via the peroneal communicating nerve to make the sural nerve ( see figure 1) (2-9).
What causes a person to have sural neuritis?
Causes and Symptoms of Sural Neuritis. Irritation or damage to the sural nerve is known as sural neuritis, and it’s more common than you think. Damage to your sural nerve can come from a number of different sources, but the most common way a person injuries their sural nerve is during an ankle sprain.
What causes damage to the sural nerve in the foot?
The sural nerve is purely sensory and it supplies sensation to the lower lateral leg, lateral heel, ankle and dorsal lateral foot. Damage to the sural nerve due to injury can occur as a result of trauma, fractured calcaneus, damage from surgery in the region.