Morphometric and functional results after CO2 laser welding of nerve coaptations

Background and Objective: Several reports describe nerve coaptations by las er welding in combination with stay sutures and bonding material, This stud y was undertaken to obtain functional and morphologic information by using a nerve coaptation technique by epineurial CO2 laser welding only. Study Design/Materials and Methods: The sciatic nerves of 24 rats were tran sected and epineurially coapted with the CO2 laser at 60 mW or with microsu tures as a control, Walking track analysis were carried out to evaluate the functional recovery, and the nerves were harvested for histology after 6 m onths of regeneration. Results: None of the 24 nerves showed dehiscence of the coaptations, and al l showed good nerve fiber regeneration, Better results were obtained for th e functional evaluation of the sciatic function index (P < 0.02) and the to e spread index (P < 0.04) from the laser nerve coaptations. Likewise, the m orphologic evaluations of the fiber density (P < 0.04) and area fraction (P < 0.002) were better in the laser group, Conclusion: CO2 laser welded nerve coaptations are as successful as their s utured counterparts and may become a promising alternative in clinical prac tice. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.