Evaluation of nerve recovery from minimal-duration crush injury

The recovery of damaged peripheral nerves has been the subject of multiple studies. The effects of an inadvertent clamping of a nerve has not been well examined. An experiment was performed to evaluate the effects of a minimal-duration crush injury on the rat sciatic nerve and to determine if walking track analysis was useful in evaluating the short-term functional deficit. Ten Sprague-Dawley rats underwent high-pressure, short-duration crush injuries. Walking track analysis was done regularly for 3 weeks. Histological specimens for light and electron microscopy were taken at postoperative days 3, 7, 14, 21, and 42 from similar animals. There was significant decrease in function by the second week, which then improved to control levels after week 3. Toluidine blue and electron microscopic findings confirmed the clinical course, while routine histological findings tended to lag behind the return of function. Walking track analysis appears to be an effective method of evaluating the short-duration nerve crush injury.