Effect of postoperative treatment with a combination of chuangxiong and electret on functional recovery of muscle grafts: an experimental study in the dog.

Abstract

Clinical experiences have shown that simultaneous use of constitutional and local treatments postoperatively may increase recovery of transplanted muscle function more than any single treatment. In the present experiment, 27 adult dogs had orthotopic replantation of their bilateral rectus femoris muscles by microneurovascular anastomoses with different therapeutic methods postoperatively for 22 weeks grouped as local implantation of an electret substance (n = 14), intramuscular injection of chuangxiong (Ligusticum wallichii franch) (n = 12), combined use of these two treatments (n = 14), or control (n = 14) to evaluate the influence of these different treatments on muscle function and morphology; electromyography, maximal tetanic tension, and histologic and histochemical examinations showed that the results in all the treatment groups were superior to those in the nontreatment group and that simultaneous use of constitutional and local treatments was superior to any single treatment. At week 22, the maximal tetanic tension of the three treatment groups returned to 57.68 +/- 1.67, 53.64 +/- 3.28, and 64.94 +/- 3.28 percent of control values (before transplantation), respectively, versus 47.99 +/- 2.21 percent in the nontreatment group. These results suggest that treatment with local electret and systemic chuangxiong simultaneously has a favorable effect on nerve regeneration and on muscle function after muscle transplantation.