title: Free functional musculocutaneous transfer: electrophysiological studies.
abstract: Transplanted autogenous muscles were electrophysiologically studied in 2 patients with forearm crush injury. Only fibrillation action potentials and positive sharp waves were seen at 1 month after the operation. Low-amplitude and short-duration muscular unit potentials (MUPs) appeared at 3 months and high-amplitude, long-duration and polyphasic MUPs were frequently seen at 6-7 months after the transplantation. The distal latencies of the evoked motor responses were gradually shortened from time to time and eventually became normal at about 1 year after the grafting. The mean consecutive difference became normal at about 6 months after the normalization of the distal latencies. We conclude that the motor endplate is functionally completed at about half a year after the completion of the myelination of the grafted nerve.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Japanese Red Cross Medical Center, Tokyo.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ugawa
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sakuta
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Okutsu
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kuroshima
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ninomiya
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials; D000328:Adult; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005543:Forearm Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009045:Motor Endplate / Q000502:physiology*; D009132:Muscles / Q000502:physiology / Q000637:transplantation*; D009431:Neural Conduction; D009469:Neuromuscular Junction / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D013997:Time Factors