title: Distal nerve elongation vs nerve grafting in repairing segmental nerve defects in rabbits.
abstract: Segmental nerve defects have been repaired with nerve grafts. However, regenerating fibers must go through two coaptation sites, and donor site morbidities are inevitable. We elongated the distal nerve segment using a tissue expander and reconnected the nerve. We compared these results with those of nerve grafting. Nerve injury models were created in the median nerves of both forelimbs in 27 rabbits. The right nerve was repaired by elongation, and the left by tibial nerve grafting. The length of the elongation was the same as that of the graft in each animal. Eight rabbits had a 10-mm segment repaired, 9 had a 15-mm segment repaired, and 10 had a 20-mm segment repaired. Evaluated outcomes were nerve conduction velocity, contractile force of the flexor muscle, axons number, and fiber diameter. The elongated and grafted groups did not differ substantially on any outcome. Distal nerve elongation could be an alternative to nerve grafting for repairing large nerve defects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Niigata University, School of Medicine, Niigata, Japan.
authors.forename: Hironori
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Matsuzaki
authors.forename: Minoru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shibata
authors.forename: Baoguo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Hideaki E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Takahashi
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005552:Forelimb / Q000294:innervation / Q000601:surgery; D006085:Graft Survival; D020423:Median Neuropathy / Q000601:surgery*; D009416:Nerve Regeneration / Q000502:physiology; D009431:Neural Conduction; D011336:Probability; D011817:Rabbits; D020127:Recovery of Function; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013979:Tibial Nerve / Q000637:transplantation*; D015626:Tissue Expansion / Q000379:methods*; D016378:Tissue Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D020858:Tissue and Organ Harvesting