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A physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) physician, or physiatrist, often follows patients with peripheral nerve injuries as they go through the phases of healing, whether or not they require surgery. These specialists treat pain, if present, and help to minimize the functional deficits that can develop as a result of a peripheral nerve injury.
Pain is treated by a combination of means, including medication. The most effective medications interfere with pain nerve transmission, and are helpful in decreasing this purposeless output of injured nerves as they heal. Other pain treatments include injections of anesthetics, steroids, or other agents, and new technological devices that emit low-frequency signals masking pain nerve signals. Most types of pain can be greatly minimized by a combination of these means.
Preserving function after a peripheral nerve injury follows a careful examination which details the present capability of an affected area, as well as any vulnerable areas as a result of weakness or disuse. Range of motion of a joint within an affected area can be permanently lost if it is not maintained—even if nerve function is subsequently regained. Lack of joint protection can result in future traumatic arthritis, and thus pain. Modern technology has a furnished a number of assistive devices that can provide temporary independence, while safely protecting joints and zones of nerve healing. In addition, other well functioning areas can be helped to compensate for affected areas.
Together, these means can minimize the discomfort of a peripheral nerve injury, and limit its permanent consequences.
