[Ultrastructural changes in the skeletal muscles following nerve and tendon injuries in man. II. Nerve injuries]

The alterations occuring in the fine structure of the man's hand muscles after traumatic nerve injuries have been examined by the authors. In the muscle portions taken in the 6th--16th weeks after the injury considerable atrophy of the contractile components, the desorganisation of the myofilaments, and the atropy of the mitochondrium and the sarcoplasmatic reticulum have been observed. The motor end-organs are athropic or their place is indicated but by a single great vacuolum. In the motor nerve fibres the typical picture of Waller's degeneration was seen.