Nerve damage shown to be cause of unexplained chronic pain following knee operations

Patients frequently experience severe chronic pain following knee operations. Although the pain is thought to be due to damage to small nerves, it was hitherto impossible to demonstrate this by imaging. Two studies conducted by an interdisciplinary team of researchers led by radiologist Georg Riegler from MedUni Vienna's Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy have now successfully demonstrated these tiny, sensitive, cutaneous nerves on the anterior and medial thigh and around the knee using high-resolution ultrasound imaging.