Stimulated Jitter Measurement in the Assessment of Recovery after different Methods of Peripheral Nerve Repair

Abstract

The recording of stimulated jitter offers a quantitative method for following the recovery of neuromuscular function after peripheral nerve repair. In groups of rats, electrophysiological recording of jitter was carried out on control animals and on animals 90 days after sciatic nerve division and subsequent repair with either direct end-to-end suture (NS), nerve graft (NG) or freeze thawed muscle graft (FTMG). It was found that values for jitter were highest in the FTMG group. The NS and NG groups demonstrated statistically similar jitter values when compared with each other and with the normal. It was concluded that the speed of nerve regeneration is slower in the FTMG group, at least initially, and that 90 days after sciatic nerve repair the FMTG group had an increase in the number of immature neuromuscular junctions when compared with the NS or NG groups. Jitter measurement would appear to offer a means of detecting small differences in nerve regeneration. The value of this in future developments in nerve repair is discussed.