Precise localization of peripheral nerve injuries and evaluation of their prognosis based on clinical and electrodiagnostic examinations are particularly challenging in the acute phase. High-resolution ultrasound (HRUS) may offer a viable and cost-effective imaging option for assessing the morphology of nerve injuries. Consequently, a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies on the use of ultrasound for diagnosing traumatic nerve injuries were conducted. A total of 15 studies were included, reporting the most recent findings on using HRUS in the diagnosis of traumatic nerve injury. These studies assessed the diagnostic test accuracy of ultrasound for the detection of traumatic nerve injury in 272 participants, with the cross-sectional area at the site of traumatic nerve injury also reported in 1,249 participants. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of the included studies were 92% confidence interval (CI) (0.89-0.95) and 86% CI (0.82-0.89), respectively. The positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, and diagnostic odds ratio were 13.76 CI (1.41-134.34), 0.08 CI (0.03-0.18), and 286.23 CI (21.22-3,860.40), respectively. In the summary of the receiver operating characteristic curve, the area under the curve was 0.986, and the Q* index was 0.949. Based on the current literature, HRUS has shown promising results in addition to its availability and feasibility. HRUS can serve as a valuable complement to clinical and electrodiagnostic examinations for diagnosing traumatic peripheral nerve injuries. Further research is recommended to better understand the ultrasound characteristics of these injuries.

Department of Epileptology Bonn University Hospital Bonn Germany

Department of Internal Medicine Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University College of Medicine Alkharj Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Department of Neurology Jena University Hospital Jena Germany; and

Department of Neurology RWTH Aachen University Hospital Aachen Germany

Faculty of Medicine Alexandria University Alexandria Egypt

Faculty of Medicine Beni Suef University Beni Suef Egypt

Faculty of Medicine Cairo University Cairo Egypt

Faculty of Medicine Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic

Faculty of Medicine Port Said University Port Said Egypt

Faculty of Medicine Zagazig University Zagazig Egypt

School of Medicine Newgiza University Giza Egypt

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