Experimental Studies On Denervated Muscle Reinnevated By Peripheral Split-nerve Transfer

Objective:To investigate the effects on reinnervation of denervated muscle by perpherial split-nerve transfer of rats.Methods:48 adault Wistar rats weighing 200 to 250g were used and randomly divided into four groups,experimental groupl,experimental group2(N=12)contronl groupl contronl group2(N=12).The right of tibial nerve was exposed and dissected and the proximal stump of the right dissected tibial nerve was ligated in the experimental groups.The right exposed peroneal nerve of experimental groups was half split and transected along the longitudinal axis of the nerve for 10mm approximately.The split peroneal nerve was routed posteriorly.End-to-end neural anastomosis was performed between this routed split peroneal nerve and the distal stump of the tibial nerve.In the contronl groups(N=12),the tibial and the peroneal nerve were done the same as the experimental groups.But the proximal and the distal stump of the right tibial nerve and the split peroneal nerve were ligated without any neural anastomosis.The left hind limb of all rats served as a normal comparison side without any surgical intervention.Electronphysiological examination,muscle wet weight measurement,image analysis,electron microscopic observation were carried out at the end of 1th and 2th month after operation.Results:There are significantly differences in CMAP of muscle amplitude of vibration(5.45±1.02mV和5.97±0.841mV),and recovery of muscle tension(%)(60.1±5.2;70.6±6.4;p<0.05),muscle wet weight measurement(%)(87.1±4.9;90.4±2.6;p<0.05),muscle cross section area(um~2)(624.26±63.11;592.57±34.95; p<0.05),electron microscopic observation between experimental groups and control groups.Conclusion:This study confirms that split-nerve transfer is a reliable method of reconstruction for denervated muscle.