To study nerve degeneration and regeneration the peroneal nerve of the rabb
it is a rewarding experimental model. The access to the nerve should be as
atraumatic as possible and no muscular tissue should be incised or transect
ed in order to lower postoperative morbidity and enhance the welfare of the
animals. Given such conditions it is not possible to expose the undistribu
ted proximal and central parts of the peroneal nerve from the intervertebra
l notch to its passage through the lateral head of the gastrocnemius muscle
by a single approach, but rather a two-level incision is required. Such an
approach to the peroneal nerve was carried out on 24 New Zealand White rab
bits. The amount of postoperative pain was estimated by the rabbits social
and feeding behaviour. The observed overall impairment was impressively low
. This approach has been shown to be beneficial for the animals, and is atr
aumatic and should be strongly recommended.