FILLING VEIN WITH TWO NEURAL SEGMENTS TO BRIDGE NERVE DEFECT:AN EXPERIMENTAL AND CLINICAL STUDY / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Twenty-one rabbits were randomly divided into three groups experimental group-filling vein with two neural segments being 0.3cm long to bridge 4cm defect of common peroneal nerve, control group-bridging vein directly to the 4cm defect of common peroneal nerve, auto-nerve-grafting group-cutting off a segment (4cm long) from common peroneal nerve and grafting it inversely.After 25 weeks, morphological, electrophysiological and histological examinations were undertaken, which revealed that the experimental group was most similar to the auto-nerve-grafting group in recovery of motion of the limbs, action potential of muscle, nerve conductive velocity, and regenerating density of nerve fibers and axons. It was a failure in control group. Satisfactory results were also achieved in 2 patients with defect of ulnar nerve treated by filling vein with two neural segments. It suggests that our method is feasible.