నైరూప్య

Why The Greater Occipital Nerve Is Not Considered For Nerve Grafting?

B Venugopala Rao and Viswakanth Bhagavathula.

The commonly used sensory nerves for nerve grafting are the sural, saphenous, great auricular, medial antebrachial, superficial radial (to name a few) which are easily located and have their donor arteries to nourish the epineurium. The greater occipital nerve the thickest cutaneous nerve is never considered as a graft material inspite of it satisfying all the necessary criteria as above. The aim of this article is to review the anatomy of the GON and discuss the eligibility of this nerve as an additional source for nerve grafting, mainly for facial nerve injuries.