[Impairment of the restoration of motor function after delayed nerve suture]

Motor restitution was studied after severance and microsurgical suture of 75 rabbit peroneal nerves by functional, electromyographic and morphological methods. Maximal pre-suture denervation lasted 12 months. Concerning the nerve distal to the suture site, individual variations in the degree of neurotization were more obvious than increasing changes with later nerve suture. But yet motor recovery was worse in this animal group with long lasting pre-suture denervation intervals. It therefore is concluded that changes within the muscle cells and the motor endplates probably are of outstanding importance for the poor motor recovery. Morphological findings in muscle and endplates support the conclusion. Especially after late nerve sutures the arrival of axons within the muscle is by no means necessarily followed by a sufficient recurrence of its function.