Renaut body distribution at sites of human peripheral nerve entrapment.

In an autopsy study of the pathology of chronic subclinical nerve entrapment Renaut bodies showed a strong predilection for sites of nerve entrapment. They were present at these sites in 43 of 74 peripheral nerves but in none of the control sections of the same nerves. Renaut bodies were most frequently encountered in the median nerve at the wrist and in the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve at the inguinal ligament but were rarely seen in sections of the common peroneal nerve at the neck of the fibula. Renaut bodies were closely associated with thickened subperineurial capillaries, and, in successive transverse sections, they terminated in a fibrous mass of these thickened vessels. In several nerves Renaut bodies showed a similar orientation within adjacent fascicles, suggesting that mechanical factors were related to their pathogenesis; despite this finding there was no relationship between their numbers at entrapment sites and the presence of pathological changes in myelinated nerve fibres at the same level. These findings suggest that while mechanical factors are important in the pathogenesis of Renaut bodies there is no evidence to support the theory that these structures protect nerve fibres from mechanical stress.