The prevention of muscle atrophy following peripheral nerve repair using an implantable electrical system

Despite the best of modern microsurgical skills, the functional result that is achieved following the repair of a severed peripheral motor nerve has usually been less than complete. In an attempt to reduce or prevent denervation atrophy we have devised a totally implantable system of electrical stimulation and have examined its effect on the target muscle of a repaired peripheral nerve. In this study, twenty New Zealand white rabbits were divided into two groups: in one group the rectus femoris muscle is electrically stimulated after microsurgical repair of the femoral nerve; whereas the control group undergoes microsurgical repair of the femoral nerve only. Comparing the muscles to their contralateral counterparts at eight weeks post-op we found that electrical stimulation resulted in (a) the retention of 79+/...