Tej. Hems et Ma. Glasby, THE LIMIT OF GRAFT LENGTH IN THE EXPERIMENTAL USE OF MUSCLE GRAFTS FOR NERVE REPAIR, Journal of hand surgery. British volume, 18B(2), 1993, pp. 165-170
In order to investigate whether there is any length limit for the succ
ess of freeze-thawed muscle grafts when used for peripheral nerve repa
ir, an experimental study was undertaken in the rabbit. Previous work
has shown 4 cm muscle grafts in the rabbit sciatic nerve to be success
ful. On this basis 5 cm and 10 cm muscle grafts were inserted into the
common peroneal nerve and compared with 5 cm and 10 cm free nerve gra
fts. Recovery was assessed after 250 days using whole nerve physiology
, weights of innervated muscles, and histological examination of the n
erve. At both 5 cm and 10 cm the nerve grafts performed significantly
better than the muscle grafts, the 10 cm muscle grafts being totally i
neffective. The implications of these results for the application of f
reeze-thawed muscle grafting in peripheral nerve surgery and the possi
ble factors limiting length of grafting are discussed.