[An experimental study of basement membrane of the muscle grafts in the peripheral nerves]

The suitability of muscle basement membrane tubes as alternative to autogenous nerve grafting was appraised by comparing the nerve regeneration process in muscle basement membrane tube grafts used to bridge gaps in peripheral nerves with that in nerve grafts. The results revealed that nerve fibres grew through the muscle basement membrane tubes spanning a 2 cm gap and reinnervated end organ, at 20 weeks after operation, the nerve function recovered satisfactorily. However, the toe-spreading function, MCV and the amplitude of MAP on the muscle basement membrane tube grafting sides were not as good as on the nerve grafting sides, the axon diameter and degree of remyelination for the former also inferior to the latter. As time elapsed postoperatively, the difference between two kinds of grafts showed a tendency to diminish by all criteria used in this study. It imply that muscle basement membrane tube graft is a promising alternative to nerve grafting.