[War injuries of the femoral nerve. Apropos of a series of 27 cases].

The authors report a series of 27 war injuries to the femoral nerve which represent approximately 1% of all of the war injuries to peripheral nerves operated in our department since the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1978 and during the 8 years of the war between Iran and Iraq. All of the victims presented with associated lesions: abdominal (24 laparotomies, including 10 colostomies) and/or vascular (3 iliac artery by-pass grafts). We divided the cases into 3 groups. In Group 1 (18 cases), the femoral nerve had a mean defect of 8 centimetres which was grafted. In Group 2 (4 cases), the nerve was simply compressed by fibrosis and/or metallic bodies and was released. In Group 3 (5 cases), the nerve trunk had a partial loss of substance which was grafted. The motor results were very satisfactory (M3 to M5) in the 3 groups with muscular recovery in about 2 years.