Peripheral nerve entrapment: how to diagnose and when to refer

Peripheral nerve entrapment (entrapment neuropathy) can affect any peripheral nerve in the body. Entrapment may occur when nerves pass through narrow, rigid tunnels, traverse highly mobile joints, pass along hypertrophied muscles or fibrous bands, or are subject to extrinsic pressure from certain limb postures. Such compressions are more likely with repetitive activity, presence of tissue swelling, trauma, and generalised polyneuropathies such as diabetic neuropathy, or in some inherited neuropathies such as hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies.1