[Development of methods of connecting severed nerve trunks to restore their integrity]

An experimental model of a seamless end-to-end joining of severed sciatic nerve (with gaps between the two ends 5-8 mm-wide) using an implanted arterial vessel was elaborated on random bred and inbred Wistar rats. Histological examination showed that nerve regeneration along the implanted arterial lumen was directly oriented and was not accompanied by neuroma formation which was always the case in the control. It took some nerve fibers 20 days to join the gap between the cut nerve ends. In 4 months myelination of regenerating fibers was observed in the blood vessel lumen, in 3 months the lumen was filled with bundles of myelinated fibers, and in 9 months the structure of the regenerating nerve was similar to that of the mature trunk observed in animals. The elaborated experimental model is to be employed in the studies of reparatory histogenesis in peripheral nervous tissues. The data obtained may be used in neurosurgery.