Histological changes of wrist interosseous ligaments after radiofrequency electrothermal shrinkage / 中华创伤杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the histological changes of the wrist interosseous ligaments after radiofrequency electrothermal shrinkage. Methods Six frozen fresh male adult cadaver wrist ligaments were exploited for the research. The ligaments of the right wrists were treated with radiofrequency electrothermal shrinkage with Arthrocare system, while the ligaments of the left wrists were kept as the normal control. The bone-ligament-hone samples of all the scapholunate (SL) and lunotriquetral (LT) ligaments were prepared, sectioned and then stained with the regular HE staining, toluidine blue staining, Sirius-red staining and immunohistochemistry staining of collagen Ⅲ. The image analysis software was used to compare the staining results. Results The histological structures of SL dorsal ligaments (SL-d) and LT volar ligaments (LT-v) were very similar, and the structures of SL volar ligaments (SL-v) and LT dorsal ligaments (LT-d) were also very similar. The membrane parts of both SL and LT ligaments showed the fibrous cartilage structure. The histological structures of SL-d and LT-v were much less destroyed by the radiofrequency than those of SL-v and LT-d. After radiofrequency electrothermal shrinkage, only the distribution areas of collagen Ⅰ and collagen Ⅲ were significantly changed in the membrane parts of SL and LT ligaments. Conclusion Radiofrequency electrothermal shrinkage treatment can cause minor structural damage to the collagen-dominant ligaments such as SL-d and LT-v, while it can lead to quite severe structural damage to the ligaments containing collagen and lots of loose connective tissue, such as SL-v and LT-d.