slit wrist and now have numbness between thumb and wrist
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mrstarmen
slit wrist and now have numbness between thumb and wrist
hello I slit my left wrist last 11 months ago and now have less feeling between thumb and wrist. Is there anything like nerve growing with tubes etc that can reattach the nerves and fix this? About half an inch size sqare scar on left wrist where nerves were hurt. Can they be attached with tubes? Is 3 cm the longest tubes availabe? Who does this type of research? I was stupid to try to hurt myself. Can new skin be put back on left wrist?
Re: slit wrist and now have numbness between thumb and wrist
Hi Mrstarmen. Hey, I see you made #600 on our roll call. Nicely done. I'm new to all this too (the website, not the arm problems). I know little about treatments yet but I would think your scar and nerve cut would be so short that some graft or other procedure would be possible. But, again, I know little about this stuff yet. Here's hoping we can both get fixed up good as new. Glad you're OK.
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mrstarmen
Re: slit wrist and now have numbness between thumb and wrist
hi ripp. I remember riding my bike in junior high. I never thought about how dangerous it could be when being so near passing cars. And I never thought my first physical hurt would be caused by myself. I started seeing lights in my eyes so I tried to kill myself. did not want to go blind. Now I know how to fix my eyes, but the hurt in my wrist is there now. Went to Mexico to try to kill myself before. Found the materials to give myself euthanasia, stayed three weeks down there and then with all the materials to give myself euthanasia, then decided that God is the only one who should kill (1 corinthians 3:17 etc) and commandment number 6 thou shall not kill. Are there any doctors out there who can help with a case of a slit wrist? My left thumb is weaker than right thumb. will surgery just make the matter worse? Since 11 months ago, pain has subsided alot. Scarring at wrist cause of movement there is a different type of scar....still have feeling thru the scar and it is a thin type of scar there as opposed to a thicker scar where I cut myself. At first touching part of area just between thumb and wrist to another hard object gave me great tingling sensation...now that sensation has sort of passed..but still less feeling there. The actual thumb area feels pretty normal. Its the aree between thumb and wrist that has lost some feeling and gave me tingling for 11 months. What is hapening here?
Re: slit wrist and now have numbness between thumb and wrist
A hand spcialist should be able to help you out. Not sure what you can expect but here is a link with drs that sound right up your alley. http://www.yellowpages.com/nationwide/n ... xmlapi_lmi
This was the type dr my husband saw when he ran his hand through a table saw with a 3/4 inch blade on it. They should also be able to do skin grafts for the scar.
Sue
This was the type dr my husband saw when he ran his hand through a table saw with a 3/4 inch blade on it. They should also be able to do skin grafts for the scar.
Sue
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mrstarmen
Re: slit wrist and now have numbness between thumb and wrist
The ability to regenerate nerve cells in the body could reduce the effects of trauma and disease in a dramatic way. In two presentations at the NSTI Nanotech 2007 Conference, researchers describe the use of nanotechnology to enhance the regeneration of nerve cells. In the first method, developed at the University of Miami, researchers show how magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) may be used to create mechanical tension that stimulates the growth and elongation of axons of the central nervous system neurons. The second method from the University of California, Berkeley uses aligned nanofibers containing one or more growth factors to provide a bioactive matrix where nerve cells can regrow.
It is known that injured neurons in the central nervous system (CNS) do not regenerate, but it is not clear why. Adult CNS neurons may lack an intrinsic capacity for rapid regeneration, and CNS glia create an inhibitory environment for growth after injury. Can these challenges be overcome even before we fully understand them at a molecular level "why axons in central nervous system do not regenerate"" Dr. Mauris N. De Silva describes the novel nanotechnology based approach designed that includes the use of magnetic nanoparticles and magnetic fields for addressing the challenges associated with regeneration of central nervous system after injury. "By providing mechanical tension to the regrowing axon, we may be able to enhance the regenerative axon growth in vivo". This mechanically induced neurite outgrowth may provide a possible method for bypassing the inhibitory interface and the tissue beyond a CNS related injury. Using optic nerve and spinal cord tissues as in vivo models and dissociated retinal ganglion neurons as an in vitro model, De Silva and his colleagues are currently investigating how these magnetic nanoparticles can be incorporated into neurons and axons at the site of injury. Although, this study is at a very preliminary stage to explore the possibility of using magnetic nanoparticles for enhancing in vivo axon regeneration, this work may have significant implications for the treatment of spinal cord injuries, and is a vital "next step" in bringing this new technology to clinical use.
The second presentation focuses on peripheral nerve injury, which affects 2.8% of all trauma patients and quite often results in lifelong disability. Since peripheral nerves relay signals between the brain and the rest of the body, injury to these nerves results in loss of sensory and motor function. Upper extremity paralysis alone affects more than 300,000 individuals annually in the US. The most serious form of peripheral nerve injury is complete severance of the nerve. The severed nerve can regenerate; the nerve fibers from the nerve end closest to the spinal cord have to grow across the injury gap, enter the other nerve segment and then work their way through to their end targets (skin, muscle, etc). Usually, when the gap between the severed nerve endings is larger than a few millimeters, the nerve does not regenerate on its own. If left untreated, the end result is permanent sensory and motor paralysis. A few hundred thousand people suffer from this debilitating condition annually in the US.
Currently, the most successful form of treatment is to take a section of healthy nerve (autograft) from another part of the patient's body to bridge the damaged one. This autograft then serves as a guide for nerve fibers to cross the injury gap. Although successful, this autograft procedure has major drawbacks including loss of function at the donor site, multiple surgeries and, quite often, it's just not possible to find a suitable nerve to use as a graft. Various synthetic nerve grafts are currently available but none work better than the autograft and can't bridge gaps larger than 4 centimeters.
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have developed a technology that has the potential to serve as a better alternative than currently available synthetic nerve grafts. The graft material is composed entirely of aligned nanoscale polymer fibers. These polymer fibers act as physical guides for regenerating nerve fibers. They have also developed a way to make these aligned nanofibers bioactive by attaching various biochemicals directly onto the surfaces of the nanofibers. Thus, the bioactive aligned nanofiber technology mimics the nerve autograft by providing both physical and biochemical cues to enhance and direct nerve growth.
This technology has been tested by culturing rat nerve tissue ex vivo on our bioactive aligned nanofiber scaffolds. When the nerve tissue was cultured on unaligned nanofibers there was no nerve fiber growth onto the scaffolds. However, on aligned nanofiber scaffolds, they not only observed nerve fibers growing from the tissue but the nerve fibers were aligned in the same orientation as the nanofibers. Furthermore, when there were biochemicals present on the nanofibers, the nerve fiber growth was enhanced 5 fold. In a matter of just 5 days, nerve fibers had extended 4 millimeters from the nerve tissue in a bipolar fashion on the bioactive aligned nanofiber scaffolds. Thus, this technology can induce, enhance and direct nerve fiber regeneration in a straight and organized manner.
In order to make the technology clinically viable, they have also developed a novel graft fabrication technology in their laboratory. The most common method for fabricating polymer nanofibers is to use an electrical field to "spin" very thin fibers. This technique is called electrospinning and can be used to make nanofiber scaffolds in various shapes such as sheets and tubes. They have made a key innovation to this technology that enables us to fabricate tubular nerve grafts composed entirely of polymer nanofibers aligned along the length of tubes. This technology also allows customization of the length, diameter and thickness of the aligned tubular nanofiber grafts. The group will evaluate the performance of these aligned nanofiber nerve grafts in small animal pre-clinical studies starting in mid-May.
It is known that injured neurons in the central nervous system (CNS) do not regenerate, but it is not clear why. Adult CNS neurons may lack an intrinsic capacity for rapid regeneration, and CNS glia create an inhibitory environment for growth after injury. Can these challenges be overcome even before we fully understand them at a molecular level "why axons in central nervous system do not regenerate"" Dr. Mauris N. De Silva describes the novel nanotechnology based approach designed that includes the use of magnetic nanoparticles and magnetic fields for addressing the challenges associated with regeneration of central nervous system after injury. "By providing mechanical tension to the regrowing axon, we may be able to enhance the regenerative axon growth in vivo". This mechanically induced neurite outgrowth may provide a possible method for bypassing the inhibitory interface and the tissue beyond a CNS related injury. Using optic nerve and spinal cord tissues as in vivo models and dissociated retinal ganglion neurons as an in vitro model, De Silva and his colleagues are currently investigating how these magnetic nanoparticles can be incorporated into neurons and axons at the site of injury. Although, this study is at a very preliminary stage to explore the possibility of using magnetic nanoparticles for enhancing in vivo axon regeneration, this work may have significant implications for the treatment of spinal cord injuries, and is a vital "next step" in bringing this new technology to clinical use.
The second presentation focuses on peripheral nerve injury, which affects 2.8% of all trauma patients and quite often results in lifelong disability. Since peripheral nerves relay signals between the brain and the rest of the body, injury to these nerves results in loss of sensory and motor function. Upper extremity paralysis alone affects more than 300,000 individuals annually in the US. The most serious form of peripheral nerve injury is complete severance of the nerve. The severed nerve can regenerate; the nerve fibers from the nerve end closest to the spinal cord have to grow across the injury gap, enter the other nerve segment and then work their way through to their end targets (skin, muscle, etc). Usually, when the gap between the severed nerve endings is larger than a few millimeters, the nerve does not regenerate on its own. If left untreated, the end result is permanent sensory and motor paralysis. A few hundred thousand people suffer from this debilitating condition annually in the US.
Currently, the most successful form of treatment is to take a section of healthy nerve (autograft) from another part of the patient's body to bridge the damaged one. This autograft then serves as a guide for nerve fibers to cross the injury gap. Although successful, this autograft procedure has major drawbacks including loss of function at the donor site, multiple surgeries and, quite often, it's just not possible to find a suitable nerve to use as a graft. Various synthetic nerve grafts are currently available but none work better than the autograft and can't bridge gaps larger than 4 centimeters.
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have developed a technology that has the potential to serve as a better alternative than currently available synthetic nerve grafts. The graft material is composed entirely of aligned nanoscale polymer fibers. These polymer fibers act as physical guides for regenerating nerve fibers. They have also developed a way to make these aligned nanofibers bioactive by attaching various biochemicals directly onto the surfaces of the nanofibers. Thus, the bioactive aligned nanofiber technology mimics the nerve autograft by providing both physical and biochemical cues to enhance and direct nerve growth.
This technology has been tested by culturing rat nerve tissue ex vivo on our bioactive aligned nanofiber scaffolds. When the nerve tissue was cultured on unaligned nanofibers there was no nerve fiber growth onto the scaffolds. However, on aligned nanofiber scaffolds, they not only observed nerve fibers growing from the tissue but the nerve fibers were aligned in the same orientation as the nanofibers. Furthermore, when there were biochemicals present on the nanofibers, the nerve fiber growth was enhanced 5 fold. In a matter of just 5 days, nerve fibers had extended 4 millimeters from the nerve tissue in a bipolar fashion on the bioactive aligned nanofiber scaffolds. Thus, this technology can induce, enhance and direct nerve fiber regeneration in a straight and organized manner.
In order to make the technology clinically viable, they have also developed a novel graft fabrication technology in their laboratory. The most common method for fabricating polymer nanofibers is to use an electrical field to "spin" very thin fibers. This technique is called electrospinning and can be used to make nanofiber scaffolds in various shapes such as sheets and tubes. They have made a key innovation to this technology that enables us to fabricate tubular nerve grafts composed entirely of polymer nanofibers aligned along the length of tubes. This technology also allows customization of the length, diameter and thickness of the aligned tubular nanofiber grafts. The group will evaluate the performance of these aligned nanofiber nerve grafts in small animal pre-clinical studies starting in mid-May.