EFFECTS OF POSTMORTEM FREEZING ON TENSILE FAILURE PROPERTIES OF RABBIT EXTENSOR DIGITORUM LONGUS MUSCLE TENDON COMPLEX

The tensile failures of extensor digitorum longus muscle tendon units front 16 male Neu Zealand White rabbits were studied in the fresh stat e (less than 30 minutes after death) and in the frozen/thawed state (f rozen at -80 degrees C for 28 days and then warmed to 38 degrees C). F rozen/thawed extensor digitorum longus muscle tendon units had signifi cantly lower values for load to failure (p < 0.1), energy absorbed to failure (p < 0.01), and strain al failure (p < 0.01), and they tended to fail at a different anatomic location (p < 0.01) (broadly at the fa scia-muscle interface as compared with horizontally at the musculotend inous junction) than fresh units, The results of this study suggest th at freezing muscle tendon units significantly alters their tensile fai lure characteristics.