| Peripheral nerve injuries are diverse in nature, with various degrees of functional impairment and disruption to the nerve architecture. In this study, a novel partial (3mm) lesion of the rat tibial nerve was compared to conventional crush and complete neurectomy lesions. Functional recovery was assessed using walking track analysis over a 9 week post-operative period. An index of the gastrocnemius muscle weight provided an endpoint outcome measure. The Tibial Functional Index showed that the crush group returned to normal by 4 weeks, while the neurectomy group showed no recovery. The partial lesion group showed a gradual improvement reaching an intermediate plateau of 44% by 7 weeks. All groups were significantly different from one another after one week. The muscle weight ratios for partial, crush and neurectomy lesions were 0.63, 0.87 and 0.32, respectively. In conclusion, both outcome measures provide sensitive indicators of recovery between these different types of nerve lesions. |
