The effect of catheter use on vein grafting of a peripheral nerve defect: an experimental study

BACKGROUND Since vein grafts have been used in the repair of nerve defects, studies regarding this procedure have accumulated, and after coming into clinical use, it was noticed that there is a problem of collapse in the vein graft. METHODS Forty Sprague-Dawley rats were used, divided into five groups. No surgical intervention was performed in the first group. The defect was created in the sciatic nerve in Group 2 and left unrepaired. In Group 3, the defect was repaired with a nerve graft. In Group 4, the defect was repaired with a vein graft, while in Group 5, the repair was performed using a vein graft with an inserted catheter. In order to evaluate functional recovery and nerve regeneration, walking track analysis, electrophysiologic and histomorphometric analyses were done at the end of the 12th week. RESULTS Although there were no functional differences between Groups 5 and 4, comparisons regarding nerve conduction velocity demonstrated that the results obtained in Group 5 were better than those in Group 4. When the number of axons on the distal part of the sciatic nerve and mid-segment of the repaired area was taken into account, no significant difference was found between Groups 3 and 5, whereas there was a significant difference between Groups 4 and 5. CONCLUSION In our study, it was experimentally shown that the problem of collapse of a vein graft occurring after its use in the reconstruction of a nerve defect can be overcome by placing a catheter into the vein graft. Consequently, this method may eliminate the need for the use of a nerve graft in selected cases.