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Neurectomy for nerve entrapment
Neurectomy can be an alternative to a nerve decompression for nerve entrapment, such as when the nerves have no motor function and numbness along the dermatome is acceptable. A neurectomy is not a mutually exclusive option to a decompression as a neurectomy can also be used after a failed decompression.

There are many nerves in the human body that are purely sensory such as the cutaneous nerves, which provide innervation to all parts of the skin. The cutaneous nerves are especially susceptible to compression from wearables or injuries due to their superficial location. Some examples of wearable-induced irritation are supraorbital neuralgia from tight goggles, superficial radial neuropathy from handcuffs , and meralgia paresthetica from tight pants. As cutaneous nerves cover all areas of the skin, and any surgery which requires incisions may inadvertently cause injury or scarring, now entrapping a cutaneous nerve.

A common tradeoff when electing to a neurectomy is that numbness along the nerve distribution is expected. Studies that have measured how bothersome numbness is to patients have found that most patients are not bothered at all by the numbness, and the ones that are find the numbness minimally bothering.

Intercoastal cutaneous nerves
Intercoastal neuralgia is a neuropathic condition that involves the intercoastal nerves. The primary symptom is pain and it may be localized to the distribution of one or more of the intercoastal nerves, manifesting as chest and abdominal pain. Not treatment modality prior to neurectomy (e.g. systemic medications, cryoablation, therapeutic nerve blocks, and radioablation) has given effective pain relief and none have been curative.

The success outcome is typically measured as a 50% or more decrease in visual analog scale (VAS) scores, which are numerical pain scores from 0 - 10 or 0-100. Success rates are often reported as 70%. Studies reporting on intercoastal neurectomy often report cure rates (100% reduction in symptoms), even though it's not the primary success outcome. For example, patients may say they are cured or report pain scores of zero. There is a wide span of the reported cure rates, ranging from 22 - 67%. A double-blind, randomized, controlled surgery trial found a 22% cure rate for the surgery group and a 4% cure rate for the sham surgery group, suggesting that these cure rates cannot be purely attributable to the natural history of the disease or a placebo effect.

Lateral femoral cutaneous nerve
Lateral femoral cutaneous neuralgia, often known as Meralgia Paresthetica, involves neuropathic pain on the outer thigh. The use of a nerve decompression or neurectomy to treat nerve pain along the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve is a firmly established surgical treatment. However, the more effective treatment between a decompression and neurectomy is still being researched.

Between a nerve decompression and a neurectomy, the neurectomy is associated with a higher success rate which has been validated by two Cochrane reviews. The reviews found decompressions beneficial in 88% of cases and neurectomy beneficial in 94% of cases. A German national cohort study found similar results where complete pain relief from decompression was seen in 63% of cases but complete pain relief from neurectomy was seen in 85%.