TissueDB/Tissues/Nerve

▼This page is a tissue entry for the SELF Tissue Database.It documents the structures, recommended materials, and related simulators associated with this tissue to support low-cost, reproducible surgical simulator development.

A nerve is a bundle of axons enclosed in connective tissue (epineurium, perineurium, endoneurium) carrying motor, sensory, or autonomic signals between the central nervous system and peripheral targets. In surgical simulation, nerve identification and preservation is a frequently-trained skill: chronic post-operative pain is a major morbidity of many procedures including inguinal hernia repair (ilioinguinal, iliohypogastric, and genitofemoral nerves), thyroidectomy (recurrent laryngeal nerve), and parotidectomy (facial nerve). The phrenic nerve is one such nerve: it descends through the thorax to the diaphragm, and it must be identified and preserved because injury to it paralyses the diaphragm. Simulators must convey the visual and tactile characteristics that distinguish nerves from adjacent vascular and connective structures.