Editor-in-Chief: Alaa Abd-Elsayed, MD, PhD
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BACKGROUND: Posttraumatic neuralgia (PTN) is a complex and debilitating condition that can arise from physical injury to a peripheral nerve, resulting in chronic neuropathic pain that significantly affects the individual’s quality of life.
CASE REPORT: A 52-year-old woman with a recent history of incomplete spinal cord injury developed a common peroneal nerve injury from neuromuscular electrical stimulation during her acute inpatient rehabilitation. The patient was initially managed with oral corticosteroids and neuropathic medications without resolving neuropathic pain symptoms. Ultimately, the patient continued to have chronic neuropathic pain symptoms along the common peroneal nerve pathway leading to the diagnosis of PTN.
CONCLUSIONS: We hypothesize this unusual complication resulted from a prior neurological injury, making this patient more susceptible to nerve injury when intense electrical forces were transmitted to the common peroneal nerve, ultimately leading to PTN of the common peroneal nerve.
KEY WORDS: Posttraumatic neuralgia, common peroneal nerve injury, neuromuscular electrical stimulation, neuralgia
