Tr. Stevenson et al., TUBULAR NERVE GUIDE AND EPINEURAL REPAIR - COMPARISON OF TECHNIQUES FOR NEURORRHAPHY, Journal of reconstructive microsurgery, 10(3), 1994, pp. 171-174
Experiments were conducted on 36 male, Sprague-Dawley rats. In 10 anim
als, neurorrhaphy was performed on the peroneal nerve with epineurial
repair and, in 11 animals, with a tubular polyethylene nerve guide. Th
e authors tested the hypothesis that, following transient denervation
of a skeletal muscle by transection of a peroneal nerve, the restorati
on of maximum force and of maximum specific force developed after inse
rtion of a tubular nerve guide, will not be different from that develo
ped after microsurgical epineurial neurorrhaphy The contractile proper
ties of the extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscle, innervated by the
peroneal nerve, were evaluated after an average of 116 days. The maxim
um tetanic force of EDL muscles with epineurial repair and nerve guide
were 84 percent and 75 percent, respectively, of the value for contro
l EDL muscles. The specific forces of the muscles in both groups were
not different from the control values. The conclusion is that, followi
ng stabilization after transection and repair, each of the two methods
was equally effective in restoring the ability of the muscle to devel
op force.