The quality and extension of nerve fibre regeneration in the centrocentral anastomosis of the peripheral nerve.

Centro central anastomosis (CCA) is the connection created by means of a nerve autograft placed between the fascicles of the proximal stump of a sectioned nerve. We have used this technique in the laboratory and in the human to avoid the formation of a terminal neuroma after amputation of a limb. The aim of the present study is to know what is the quality and how long is the progression of the regenerating nerve fibers coming from a fascicle and growing inside the nerve graft and into the other central fascicle. 56 male, adult, Sprague-Dawley rats were operated on. The 4 rats of Group I were used for control: the right sciatic nerve was exposed and dissected in its four branches. One piece of 10 mm was taken of each of the sural and the peroneal branches for hystological and histomorphometric studies. In the 16 rats of Group II, after the section of the sural and peroneal branches a terminoterminal suture between their proximal stumps was made. In the 16 rats of Group III a CCA with an interposed nerve graft of 7 mm was achieved. 5.5 and 6 rats of Groups II and III were sacrificed at 10, 40 and 365 days after the operation and the entire graft was taken for histological analysis. In the 20 rats of Group IV, 60 days after CCA, the graft was sectioned at its center to produce wallerian degeneration of nerve fibers. 10 days after this second operation the animals were sacrificed and the nerve specimens were taken for histological study.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)