Ultrasonography Diagnosis of Peripheral Nerves: Cases and Illustrations

Editors

Dingzhang Chen and Minjuan Zheng

Ultrasonography Diagnosis of Peripheral Nerves

Cases and Illustrations

Editors

Dingzhang Chen

Department of Ultrasound, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China

Minjuan Zheng

Department of Ultrasound, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China

ISBN 978-981-15-2703-6e-ISBN 978-981-15-2704-3

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2704-3

© Peoples Medical Publishing House, PR of China 2020

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Foreword

Musculoskeletal ultrasound has become a valuable imaging method for its extensive clinical applications in orthopedics, sports medicine, rehabilitation therapy, pain management, anesthesia, and so on. High-resolution ultrasound imaging can be used to make accurate diagnoses of peripheral nerve diseases with its real-time approach. However, the anatomy of peripheral nerves is complex, with extensive distribution in the human body, running between muscles and blood vessels. This complexity requires the examiner to have rich anatomical and clinical knowledge. The correct diagnosis of peripheral nerve abnormalities can only be made by mastering the standard operating techniques and being familiar with typical sonographic characteristics of various lesions. Thus, a dedicated ultrasound textbook that covers the anatomy, physiology, and pathology of peripheral nerves in clinical examples, along with audio-video demonstration, will surely be favored and welcomed.

Professor Dingzhang Chen at Xijing Hospital of Air Force Medical University (formerly known as the Fourth Military Medical University) is a well-known musculoskeletal ultrasound expert in China, especially for peripheral nerve diseases. In 1996, Dr. Chen studied at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and worked with me for a year. During his decades of dedication to ultrasound, Dr. Chen led his team to obtain tremendous basic and clinical achievements in ultrasound of the peripheral nervous system. Dr. Chen and his colleagues made great efforts to present this book in an audio-video format and illustrate a variety of common and typical cases involving peripheral nerves to the readers, which will certainly serve as extraordinary learning experiences. No doubt, theUltrasonography Diagnosis of Peripheral Nerves: Cases and Illustrations will prove to be a useful tool of great benefit to learners.

Ji-Bin Liu

Preface

With the increased development of technologies, ultrasonic examination has become one of the most useful diagnostic modalities for the musculoskeletal system and is often used in parallel with X-ray, computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). It has been widely applied in the fields of orthopedics, hand surgery, pain management, immunology, physiotherapy, rehabilitation medicine, and neurology. In particular, high-resolution ultrasonography can provide high-quality imaging for most of the human peripheral nervous system and can even compete with MRI imaging in some cases. High-resolution ultrasonography has been considered a reliable examination method for clinical peripheral neurological diseases, but there are only a few books that focus on neurological ultrasonography. Therefore, I considered writing a simple, instructive professional book on neurological ultrasound based on my decades of experience and case studies.

I have engaged in the specialty of ultrasound for over 30 years. In 1996, I had the privilege of learning from Professor Barry Goldberg and Professor Liu Jibin, the international authorities on ultrasound at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. This was also the first time I had a preliminary understanding of the clinical application of musculoskeletal superficial ultrasound. When I returned to China in March 1998, I was invited to join the consultation on a patient who may have suffered from median nerve damage, during which a clinical hand surgeon asked me whether ultrasound could be used for examining nerves. Therefore, I made my first attempt to use ultrasound to visualize nerves and found the position of the neurological fracture, which led to the diagnosis; the surgery outcome later validated the same finding as the ultrasound. Since then, I began to work on the science of neurological ultrasound. With years of collaboration with my colleagues in the neurology and hand surgery departments, I have finally achieved today’s accomplishments.

This book on case diagrams includes many anatomy diagrams from fresh corpses and operating rooms, and helps readers deeply understand the path through which nerves run. We collected a variety of ultrasound imaging data and surgical results covering different content, including the most common diseases and typical cases. This book, which contains ultrasound images and dynamic surgical videos with audio explanations, is easily understood; thus, this book is especially suited for doctors who are specialists in medical imaging, orthopedics, neurology, anesthesiology, pain management, and physiotherapy for rehabilitation.

Lastly, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my wife, Ms. Wang Danyun, for her support and contributions to our family. Without her help, I would not have had the spare time to complete this book alongside my busy schedule of clinical work. Additionally, I would like to express my gratitude to my team for their efforts in the preparation of this book.

Dingzhang Chen

Xi’an, China

May, 2019

Acknowledgements

Mr. Qi Zhang and Mr. Chen FanHitachi Medical (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd

Contents

1 Anatomy of Peripheral Nerves 1

Jing Wang, Dingzhang Chen and Minjuan Zheng

2 Scanning Methods for Peripheral Nerves and Normal Ultrasonograms 9

Minjuan Zheng, Jing Wang, Dingzhang Chen and Wenqing Gong

3 Ultrasonography of Peripheral Nerve Abnormalities 25

Dingzhang Chen, Minjuan Zheng, Jing Wang and Yunan Jia

4 Typical Cases of Peripheral Nerve Injuries 43

Dingzhang Chen, Rui Zhao, Minjuan Zheng and Jing Wang

5 Application and Prospects of New Ultrasonic Technologies in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Peripheral Nerve Disorders 107

Minjuan Zheng, Dingzhang Chen and Jing Wang

© Peoples Medical Publishing House, PR of China 2020

D. Chen, M. Zheng (eds.)Ultrasonography Diagnosis of Peripheral Nerveshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2704-3_1

1. Anatomy of Peripheral Nerves

Jing Wang¹  , Dingzhang Chen¹ and Minjuan Zheng¹

(1)

Department of Ultrasound, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China

Jing Wang

1.1 Overview of the Anatomy of Peripheral Nerves

The peripheral nervous system refers to the neural structures and tissues throughout the body except the brain and spinal cord. The central nerves include 31 pairs of spinal nerves connected to the spinal cord and 12 pairs of cranial nerves connected to the brain. Peripheral nerves include somatic nerves at the body surface, bones, joints and skeletal muscles, and visceral nerves in the viscera, cardiovascular system, smooth muscles and glands.

As the basic unit of the peripheral nerve, nerve fibres consist of the long protuberance of a neuron and surrounding neurogliocytes. Aggregated nerve fibres each surrounded by endoneurium form a nerve fibre bundle in the perineurium, and different numbers of nerve fibre bundles surrounded by the epineurium form nerve trunks (Fig. 1.1) with branches spreading throughout the body. Nerve fibres in nerve trunks run through and between different fibre bundles, which causes variance in the size, number and position of fibre bundles. Except for nerve fibres, peripheral nerve trunks also include many interstitial tissues consisting of collagen fibres, elastic fibres, adipose tissues, blood vessels and lymphatic vessels. These interstitial tissues are primarily distributed among fibre bundles with a small amount in nerve bundles. The large number of interstitial tissues in nerve trunks leads to variance in the positions of fibre bundles in the trunks. Blood vessels supplying the nerve travel in the epineurium and branch into the perineurium and the endoneurium, where they form a capillary network.

Fig. 1.1

Diagram of nerve patterns

Nerves share common characteristics in routing and distribution: larger nerve trunks run alongside blood vessels in the fascial sheath of the same connective tissue, where they form vascular nerve bundles, which are usually in the flexural sides of joints. Some nerves run without the accompaniment of blood vessels due to gradual degeneration during embryonic development [1].

1.2 Structures of the Main Peripheral Nerves in the Cervical Region and Limbs

ER 1.1

Systemic neuroanatomy

1.2.1 Brachial Plexus

The brachial plexus consists of the most fibres of the C5–8 and T1 anterior branches, which run into the axilla through the scalene muscle space and the posterosuperior part of the subclavian artery. The C5 and 6 anterior branches form the superior trunk, the C7 anterior branch continues in the middle trunk, and fibres at the C8 and T1 anterior branches form the inferior trunk. Each section of the trunk contains two nerves each in the anterior and posterior parts, which run into the axilla from the posteroinferior part of the middle section of the clavicle, which forms the medial, lateral and posterior cords (Figs. 1.2 and 1.3). The anaesthesia block position for a supraclavicular brachial plexus nerve block is the upper portion of the clavicle midpoint. The dorsal scapular nerve, subclavian nerve and long thoracic nerve branch at the superior brachial plexus clavicular portion. The brachial plexus and subclavian artery are surrounded by the fascial sheath formed by the prevertebral fascia and continues at the axillary sheath [2, 3] (ER 1.2, ER 1.3, ER 1.4, ER 1.5, ER 1.6 and ER 1.7).

Fig. 1.2

Anatomy of the brachial plexus. Note: C5, C6, C7, C8 and T1 form the brachial plexus. The arrow points the intervertebral foramen, which contains a blood vessel (vertebral artery)

Fig. 1.3

Anatomic diagram of the brachial plexus

ER 1.2, ER 1.3, ER 1.4, ER 1.5, ER 1.6 and ER 1.7

Anatomy map of the brachial plexus and illustration

The surface projection of the brachial plexus is at the top 1/4 equally divided part of the straight-line section from the clavicle midpoint to the chelidon when the upper limbs are extended outward