CARDIOMYOPLASTY - TRANSFORMATION OF THE ASSISTING MUSCLE USING INTERMITTENT VERSUS CONTINUOUS STIMULATION

Background: Dynamic cardiomyoplasty has been shown to result in muscle damage and necrosis, The purpose of this study was to compare the eff ects of intermittent versus continuous stimulation on the latissimus d orsi muscle (LDM) with and without surgical dissection, Methods: Surgi cally dissected and nondissected goat LDM were either stimulated conti nuously (24 hours/day) or intermittently (16 hours on/8 hours off/day) for 60 to 75 days, Results: The findings show that the continuous sti mulation induced the most complete transformation of myosin isoforms a nd Cane pump isoforms in the nondissected LDM, whereas, intermittent s timulation resulted in less muscle damage in the surgically dissected LDM. Intermittent stimulation of the dissected LDM resulted in larger fiber areas and a lower connective tissue concentration than did the c ontinuous stimulation. Conclusions: It was concluded that surgically d issected muscle responds differently to electrical stimulation and tha t intermittent stimulation may result in less damage while transformin g the LDM pedicle for use in cardiomyoplasty.