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Inside‐out vein graft and inside‐out artery graft in rat sciatic nerve repair
Author(s) -
Barcelos Alécio Santos,
Rodrigues Antonio Castro,
Silva Maeli Dal Pai,
Padovani Carlos R.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
microsurgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.031
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1098-2752
pISSN - 0738-1085
DOI - 10.1002/micr.10083
Subject(s) - medicine , sciatic nerve , regeneration (biology) , anatomy , microsurgery , aorta , vein , artery , bridge (graph theory) , nerve repair , epineurial repair , peripheral nerve , surgery , biology , microbiology and biotechnology
Although veins and arteries present similar wall structures, there are differences which may be relevant in peripheral nerve reconstruction. Inside‐out vein grafts (IOVG) have been satisfactorily used to repair both motor and sensitive nerves. However, the inside‐out artery graft (IOAG) is a new technique and not fully investigated. Our study presents comparative morphological data on nerve regeneration achieved with IOVG and IOAG in the repair of Wistar rat sciatic nerves. Jugular veins and aorta arteries were harvested from donor animals and used “inside‐out” to bridge a 10‐mm gap. Animals were sacrificed at 10 weeks to evaluate nerve regeneration. Both techniques presented great variability in nervous tissue, though some animals showed satisfactory results. Different intensities of scarring processes might have interfered with nerve regeneration. Although IOVG and IOAG techniques showed similar morphometric results, in general, IOVG presented a closer‐to‐normal nerve organization than IOAG. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. MICROSURGERY 23:66–71 2003