A rat study of the use of end-to-side peripheral nerve repair as a “babysitting” technique to reduce the deleterious effect of chronic denervation

Abstract

These experiments in rats demonstrated that delayed nerve repair is more effective when the deleterious effects of chronic denervation of the distal nerve stump are reduced by protecting the nerve stump with ingrowing nerve fibers across an end-to-side insertion of the distal nerve stump into a neighboring intact nerve. Such an end-to-side neurorrhaphy may be invaluable as a means of preventing the atrophy of distal nerve stumps and target organs after chronic denervation, which allows for effective reinnervation of the protected distal nerve stumps and target organs over distance and time.