Relevance of Muscle Weight as a Functional Parameter for the Regeneration of the Peroneal Nerve in Rabbits

ABSTRACT

To evaluate the relevance of muscle weight as a functional parameter of motor regeneration, the nerve-dependent muscle weights were measured and compared with the toe-spreading reflex and the muscle action potential in different designs of nerve conditioning of the peroneal nerve in New Zealand White rabbits. From 100 peroneal nerves in 50 rabbits, 60 nerves received a conditioning crush lesion and 4 weeks later a test lesion-a transection with suturing at different sites. An additional 10 peroneal nerves were solely transected and sutured, 10 peroneal nerves were sham-operated, and 20 peroneal nerves remained unoperated for control. Eleven weeks after the final lesion, when the toe-spreading reflex had returned, the peroneal muscle weight showed a non-significant relation with the toe-spreading reflex (area 0.650, p = 0.149), whereas the relation of the amplitude (area 0.964, p < 0.001) and the conduction velocity (area 0.721, p = 0.033, left side) with the toe-spreading reflex were significant. Despite the lower sensitivity and specificity of the muscle weight, the possibility to measure the weight of all three peroneal nerve-dependent muscles separately represents a more detailed method of evaluation than both the toe-spreading reflex testing and the muscle action potential recording and justifies its use as a functional parameter in the early phase of peroneal motor regeneration in the rabbit.

KEYWORDS

Electromyography - functional evaluation - muscle weight - nerve-dependent muscles - nerve regeneration - toe-spreading reflex

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