The Changes of Peripheral Nerve Microstructure After Surgical Manipulation – Experiment on Rat Model

Kanta, Martin; Němeček, Stanislav; Cerman, Jaroslav; Ehler, Edvard

doi:10.14712/18059694.2018.47

Acta Medica > Archive > 2005, Vol. 48 > Issue 3-4 > The Changes of Peripheral Nerve…

Acta Med. 2005, 48: 165-172

https://doi.org/10.14712/18059694.2018.47

The Changes of Peripheral Nerve Microstructure After Surgical Manipulation – Experiment on Rat Model

Martin Kanta^a, Stanislav Němeček^a, Jaroslav Cerman^a, Edvard Ehler^b

^aCharles University in Prague, Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové and University Hospital Hradec Králové, Department of Neurosurgery and Department of Medical Biochemistry, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
^bHospital in Pardubice, Department of Neurology, Pardubice, Czech Republic

Received September 1, 2005
Accepted October 1, 2005

The aim of our study was to describe histopathology of the peripheral nerve after its circular release followed by embedding in different environs. We operated on 18 male rats divided into 3 groups. In the first group right femoral nerve was surgically released. In the second group the nerve was enveloped by the subcutaneous fat flap. In the third one the nerve was wrapped up by the skeletal muscle. Six weeks later the animals were killed by exsanguination. The femoral nerve, in the first group, did not show any pathological changes. In the second group 3 animals appeared normal or nearly normal, nevertheless in 3 of them perineural fibrosis and axonal degeneration were observed. Histological reaction in the third group disclosed dispersed axonal injury. Our experiments using rat model imitate situation in humans. The results obtained will help us in making meaningful decision when performing peripheral nerve injury.

Keywords

Nerve microstructure, Perineural fibrosis, Axonal damage, Animal models, Nerve histology.

Funding

This study was supported by MSM 0021620820 from Ministry of Education, by IGA MZ NR 8404-3/2005 and by research projects MZO 00179906 from Ministry of Health, Czech Republic.