title: Functional and histologic effects of a free nonvascularised muscle graft implanted into a reinnervated muscle after prolonged denervation.
abstract: Striated muscle atrophy and degeneration, which increase with the delay of denervation, represent two of the main causes for poor recovery following delayed nerve repair. The present study, using a rat model, tests the hypothesis that an adjunction of small, free, nonvascularised muscle grafts of contralateral healthy triceps into a chronically denervated triceps improves muscle regeneration and recovery following sciatic nerve repair delayed for 3 months. Our experiments seem to show a relative increase in mechanical properties in animals in which free muscle graft into the triceps was performed 3 weeks following nerve repair. The improvement of the regenerative process of muscles which have suffered a long period of denervation should be considered as an additional therapeutic procedure in the case of late nerve repair.
authors.affiliation: Division of Orthopaedic and Hand Surgery, Lapeyronie Hospital, Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chammas
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rabischong
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Picot
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gaviria
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Roger
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Micallef
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Prefaut
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Allieu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D008297:Male; D009121:Muscle Denervation; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000294:innervation / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000637:transplantation*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012038:Regeneration; D013997:Time Factors