Posttraumatic facial nerve regeneration in rabbits.
Posttraumatic facial paralysis is a frequent disease. This work studies posttraumatic regeneration of the facial nerve in rabbits. Functional and histological analysis compared injured and normal nerves on opposite sides. The left facial nerve trunk of twenty rabbits were subjected to compression lesion, and sacrificed after two (subgroup AL), four (BL) and six (CL) weeks. Comparison between groups was made by analysing total and partial densities of myelinated axons.


METHODS
Tukey Method (p<0.05).


RESULTS
There was partial functional recovery after two weeks, and complete recovery after five weeks. Qualitative analysis demonstrated a degenerative pattern in the AL group, with an increased tissue inflammatory process. Evident regeneration signs were observed in the BL group, and almost complete regeneration was seen in the CL group. Normal nerves (N) had an average TD of 15705.59 and average PD of 21800.75. The BL group had an average TD of 10818.55 and an average PD of 15340.56. The CL group had an average TD of 13920.36 and an average PD of 16589.15. The BL group had an average TD of N equal to 68.88%, and the CL group had an average TD of N equal to 88,63% (statistically significant). N showed a significant higher PD than injured nerves. However, this was not statistically different between BL and CL subgroups. Nerve DT was a more reliable method than PD in this study.
Costa
Heloisa Juliana Zabeu Rossi
HJ
Santa Casa Medical College, São Paulo, SP.
Silva
Ciro Ferreira da
CF
Korn
Gustavo Polacow
GP
Lazarini
Paulo Roberto
PR
D000818:Animals; D001369:Axons / Q000473:pathology* / Q000502:physiology; D002452:Cell Count; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005154:Facial Nerve / Q000502:physiology*; D020220:Facial Nerve Injuries / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D009186:Myelin Sheath / Q000473:pathology* / Q000502:physiology; D009416:Nerve Regeneration / Q000502:physiology*; D011817:Rabbits