Functional assessment of the rat sciatic nerve following intraoperative expansion: The effect of recovery duration on behavioural, neurophysiological, and morphological measures
✍ Scribed by Alexandros E. Beris; Katerina K. Naka; Antigoni Skopelitou; Ioannis Kosta; Vassilis Vragalas; Spiros Konitsiotis; Eleana Bontioti; Panayotis N. Soucacos
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1996
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 656 KB
- Volume
- 17
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0738-1085
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✦ Synopsis
The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of rapid intraoperative elongation of the rat sciatic nerve with the use of tissue expander and to assess its functional recovery. Out of 51 rats 43 had their right sciatic nerve expanded with a 5-ml intraoperative expander over 1 hr and 8 were sham-operated controls. The functional recovery of the nerve was assessed at intervals up to 4 months using the Sciatic Functional index (SFI), neurophysiological indices, and histology. Intraoperative expansion elongated the rat sciatic nerve by about 13%. SFI decreased on the first postoperative day and started to recover by Day 7, reaching almost preoperative values by Days 14 and 30 according to De Medinaceli and Bain-Mackinnon-Hunter formulas, respectively. Latency and motor conduction velocity demonstrated a deterioration after expansion which peaked on Day 1. Recovery