Impact of Race on Nerve Pedicle Transfer Outcomes: A Decade-Long Analysis

Introduction: Nerve pedicle transfer (NPT) restores function to paralyzed muscles by connecting a viable, non-essential nerve with its vascular pedicle to a damaged nerve pathway, allowing the grafted nerve to regrow into the damaged nerve. While NPT remains a promising solution, there is still a gap in understanding how racial factors affect NPT outcomes.

Methods: This retrospective study analyzed data from 177 patients who underwent a primary NPT procedure between 2011 and 2021, extracted from the American College of Surgeons National Surgery Quality Improvement Program database using CPT codes 64905 and 64907. Patients were stratified into two groups based on their races: African American group and White group. A T-test was used to compare continuous variables including hospital length of stay and operative time between the two groups. A Pearson Chi-Squared analysis was conducted to explore the relationship between race and surgical outcomes.

Results: A total of 144 patients were included in the analysis. Patients were mostly male (63.2%) with a mean age of 44.4+/-15.7 years and an average body mass index (BMI) of 30.7+/-7.7 kg/m2. Of the patients, 19 (13.2%) were African American and 125 (86.8%) were White. An independent samples T-test revealed no significant difference in operative time (2.5+/-1.9 hours vs 2.8+/-1.6 hours, p=0.459) or hospital LOS (0.4+/-1 days vs 0.7+/-1.8 daysp=0.384) between African American and White patients. Overall postoperative complication rates were comparable, with 5.6% for White and 5.3% for African American patients (p=1.0).

Conclusion : Our findings suggest that racial factors do not significantly impact surgical duration, hospitalization time, or complication rates in NPT procedures. These results support the efficacy of NPT across racial demographics and underscore the need for further research to validate these findings in larger multicenter prospective studies with diverse populations.