The Effects of Tension and Immobilization on Nerve Healing in Sutured Peripheral Nerve: An Experimental Study on Rabbit Sciatic Nerve

Bae, Dae Kyung; Yoo, Myung Chul; Kim, Ihn Ghoo; Lee, Suk Hyeon

Abstract

Great efforts have been expended to compensate for nerve gap in the repair of a peripheral nerve injury. And yet, this nerve gap presents a great problem in surgical management. End-to-end anastomosis is most frequently used for repair of peripheral nerves, but the main problem is tension at the suture site. The purpose of this experiment is to observe the relationship between the tension and the nerve healing, when stretching is applied to the suture site of the peripheral nerve trunk. We used 25 rabbits of both sexes divided into 5 groups according to the nerve gap and the period of immobilization for this study. Gross and histological examination were used to compare the results of end-to-end suture under a tension and suture without tension. We concluded that: 1. The best results were obtained when end-to-end suture was done without tension. 2. Direct suture under a tension produced the results quite inferior to that of the suture without tension. 3. Better results were obtained from the group of immobilization, at least, for 4 weeks among the tension group. 4. Immobilization period may be prolonged according to the degree of the tension affecting the suture site. 5. Tension at the suture site causes proliferation of connective tissue.