Chronic postoperative complications and donor site morbidity after sural nerve autograft harvest or biopsy.

Sural nerve excisions can cause chronic postoperative donor-site complications. Given these complications, alternative available mediums for nerve reconstruction should be explored and utilized wherever appropriate. If an alternative medium is unavailable and nerve autograft must be harvested for nerve reconstruction, then patients should be counseled about risks for developing donor site complications that may negatively affect quality of life.