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J Reconstr Microsurg 1993; 9(2): 131-138
DOI: 10.1055/s-2007-1006661
HISTORICAL AND CLINICAL REVIEW

© 1993 by Thieme Medical Publishers, Inc.

The Structural Basis of Felice Fontana's Spiral Bands and their Relationship to Nerve Injury

Lawrence S. Zachary1 , Evan S. Dellon2 , Eva M. Nicholas3 , A. Lee Dellon4
  • 1Division of Plastic Surgery, University of Chicago School of Medicine
  • 2Division of Plastic Surgery and Department of Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
  • 3University of Maryland School of Medicine
  • 4Brown University, Providence, RI
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Publication History

Accepted for publication 1992

Publication Date:
08 March 2008 (online)

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ABSTRACT

In 1779, Felice Fontana, using a six-power hand-held magnifying lens, described what appeared to be spiral bands surrounding the peripheral nerve. He hypothesized that these bands were due to an optical illusion related to the underlying undulations of the individual nerve fibers, which he was the first to observe with an early microscope. The present study examines the historical basis of Fontana's work, confirms with intrafascicular dissection that the bands are an illusion created by unstretched nerve fibers, and relates their clinical disappearance to current concepts of the pathophysiology of chronic nerve compression and nerve injury.