Emerging Considerations in Peripheral Nerve Injury and Surgical Intervention: Kevin Swong, MD

WATCH TIME: 3 minutes

“We can employ nerve transfer strategies to try to restore functions in appropriate patients, and it's important to recognize that and send them to the right referral center before it becomes too late to do anything interventionally.”

At the recently concluded 2025 Peripheral Nerve Society (PNS) Annual Meeting, held May 17-20, in Edinburgh, several sessions offered updates across the spectrum of peripheral nerve disorders. In one of the early talks, Menelaos Pipis, MBBS, MRCP, explored the diagnostic complexities of inherited peripheral neuropathies, emphasizing the challenge of distinguishing rare and atypical presentations. Additionally, in a Takeda-sponsored symposium, speakers addressed the importance of evidence-based evaluation for clinical decision-making specifically in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy.

Further along into the meeting, Kathrin Doppler, MD, presented a comprehensive look at peripheral neuropathology, highlighting the integration of traditional diagnostic frameworks with modern imaging and molecular techniques, in a session. Toward the end of the conference, a multidisciplinary panel of featured experts Grace Shin, PhD, Michael Burton, PhD, Eleonora Galosi, PhD, MD, and Solomon Tesfaye, MD, FRCP, examined advances in understanding and managing peripheral neuropathic pain, aiming to bridge basic research with the clinical practice.

After the meeting, NeurologyLive^® spoke to Kevin Swong, MD, a neurosurgeon at Northwestern Medicine, who provided an additional perspective on some of the trending topics presented at the convention. In the conversation, Swong, who also serves as an assistant professor of neurological surgery at Feinberg School of Medicine, highlighted the standard diagnostic tools for peripheral nerve pathology and noted the growing utility of MR neurography. He also emphasized 2 emerging clinical concerns where timely nerve transfer surgery could yield functional recovery and discussed surgical decision-making for peripheral nerve conditions.

Click here for more PNS 2025 coverage.