QUESTION: I would appreciate your guidance on how to rate using the Fifth Edition a worker with an ilioinguinal nerve injury secondary to a surgical repair of a hernia. Table 17-37, Impairments Due to Nerve Deficits (5th ed, 552) does not list the ilioinguinal nerve.
ANSWER: The ilioinguinal nerve is “at risk” in herniorrhaphy. The nerve is pictured in Figure 17-8, Sensory Nerves of the Lower Extremity, Their Areas of Innervation and Roots of Origin (5th ed, 551), but as you point out the maximum value of the nerve is not stated in the Fifth Edition. To rate injury to this nerve, you would have to state that you are rating using Section 17.2l, Peripheral Nerve Injuries (5th ed, 550-552). You would state you cannot determine the maximum value of the nerve from the Fifth Edition. However, in...
