I've read similar articles regarding surgically addressing nerve injury to successfully treat CRPS. Here is one (there are other articles but I can't find them at the moment).

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2649919/

The difficulty with nerve injury and hardware is that the usual MRI imaging of the nerve for additional diagnostic purposes, after emg/ncs, isn't really an option. MRI can't usually be done with hardware in place. Can you find a place to do ultrasound of the nerves of the painful area? It may give you the additional information you need to decide on the surgery. I'm finding in my own search that not every hospital offers it, but ultrasound technology has advanced over the last 10-15 years to be able to give additional diagnostic information on nerve injuries.

Here's a link to Cleveland Clinic's ultrasound imaging for nerves info:

http://my.clevelandclinic.org/servic...rve-and-muscle