The end-to-side peripheral nerve repair. Functional and morphometric study using the peroneal nerve of rats.
Morphologic and functional recovery following an end-to-side repair was studied comparatively with conventional end-to-end repair in a model of peroneal nerve lesion in rats. Twenty-eight rats were used and divided into four groups according to the reparative procedure following nerve division: (1) nerve stumps buried into neighboring muscles (n = 8); (2) conventional end-to-end repair (n = 7); (3) end-to-side repair onto the tibial nerve (n = 8); (4) sham operation (n = 5). The sciatic functional index (SFI) was evaluated at weekly intervals for 8 weeks, the peroneal nerve being resected on the 56th day for histologic and morphometric studies. The SFI progressively improved in Groups 2 (-16.9) and 3 (-22.7), although it did not reach normal values (around -8). The average nerve fiber density increased to normal values in both Groups 2 and 3, although accompanied by a marked decrease of average minimal and maximal nerve fiber diameter, myelin sheath area and G quotient. The differences between Groups 2 and 3 or Groups 2 and 4 were not significant. We conclude that, although resulting in significant morphologic and functional recovery, end-to-side repair is not as efficient as the conventional end-to-end nerve repair. However, end-to-side repair has a potential for application in selected cases in humans.
De Sá
J M R
JM
Department of Biomechanics, Medicine and Rehabilitation of the Locomotor Apparatus (Laboratory of Microsurgery), Ribeirão Preto School of Medicine, São Paulo University, Ribeirão Preto, SP 14049-900, Brazil.
Mazzer
N
N
Barbieri
C H
CH
Barreira
A A
AA
D000818:Animals; D008297:Male; D009410:Nerve Degeneration / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D009416:Nerve Regeneration / Q000502:physiology; D010543:Peroneal Nerve / Q000293:injuries* / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology / Q000601:surgery*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar