Functional and histologic effects of a free nonvascularised muscle graft implanted into a reinnervated muscle after prolonged denervation.

Abstract

Striated muscle atrophy and degeneration, which increase with the delay of denervation, represent two of the main causes for poor recovery following delayed nerve repair. The present study, using a rat model, tests the hypothesis that an adjunction of small, free, nonvascularised muscle grafts of contralateral healthy triceps into a chronically denervated triceps improves muscle regeneration and recovery following sciatic nerve repair delayed for 3 months. Our experiments seem to show a relative increase in mechanical properties in animals in which free muscle graft into the triceps was performed 3 weeks following nerve repair. The improvement of the regenerative process of muscles which have suffered a long period of denervation should be considered as an additional therapeutic procedure in the case of late nerve repair.