Preventing denervation atrophy of a grafted muscle.

Electrodes were implanted in the grafted muscles of rabbits to generate continuous stimulation for the purpose of preventing denervation atrophy. Denervation atrophy could be prevented, to some extent, in dissected muscles with vascular pedicles not occluded during the experiment. Denervation atrophy was found to be promoted, rather than prevented, in grafted muscles with occluded vascular pedicles. The crucial conditions are varying stimulation and the long duration of occlusion (90 min). Overly strong stimulation of muscle contraction appears to result in "fatigue" of grafted muscles in which blood circulation has been blocked for more than the 90 min used in the reported experiment. Further investigations are necessary of the conditions of stimulation and the point in time at which stimulation should commence after grafting.