title: Muscle reinnervation in one or two stages?: experimental study in rats with end-to-side nerve graft.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare muscle reinnervation in one and two surgical stages using end-to-side neurorrhaphy (ESN) without donor nerve injury.
  
  
  METHODS
  The experiment was performed on four groups of 20 rats. Group 1 (G1), one stage, received the graft which was sutured to the tibial nerve, with ESN, and its free stump was sutured end-to-end to the distal stump of the sectioned peroneal nerve (PN), all in the same operation. In Group 2 (G2), two stages, the nerve graft was sutured to the tibial nerve, with ESN. Two months later the PN was sectioned and its distal stump connected to the distal stump of the graft as in G1. Normal control group (Gn) received the graft only sutured to the tibial nerve, with ESN. Denervated control group (Gd), as well received the graft and had the PN sectioned and its two stumps buried in adjacent musculature, with the aim of denervating the cranial tibial muscle (CTM), the target of this study. The parameters used to evaluate CTM reinnervation were muscle mass, muscle fiber's minimum diameter and area.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean CTM mass, the average of the muscular fibers areas and the average of the muscular fiber minimum diameters was higher (all p<0.0001) in G2 than in G1. Comparing the four groups, these parameters had their maximum expression in Gn and the minimum in Gd, as expected.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The two stages showed better muscle reinnervation than one stage.
authors.affiliation: Division of Head and Neck Surgery, Department of Surgery, School of Medical Sciences, University of Marilia, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Joseli Assem
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Bersaneti
authors.forename: Fausto
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Viterbo
authors.forename: Jacks
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jorge
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Denadai
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005154:Facial Nerve / Q000502:physiology / Q000637:transplantation*; D008297:Male; D023421:Models, Animal; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000294:innervation* / Q000637:transplantation; D009416:Nerve Regeneration / Q000502:physiology*; D016067:Nerve Transfer / Q000379:methods*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013979:Tibial Nerve / Q000502:physiology / Q000637:transplantation*