Standardizing Nerve Crushes with a Non-Serrated Clamp

Abstract

Standardized experimental nerve crush attempts should include the number, duration, and intensity (amount of pressure) of crushes. The authors have developed a new crushing device, a clamp with which predetermined forces can be applied to nerves. This allows the exertion of different, standardized forces to crush a nerve within a scale that produces second-degree injuries. The main advantages of the clamp are that it is small, although very robust, is purely mechanical, and is easy to handle. The jaws of the clamp are not serrated, so that pressure on the nerve is uniformly transmitted. To avoid unintended nerve damage, the edges of the jaws are smoothly rounded off. The closure of the clamp is mechanized by a spring. As the spring is exchangeable, any number of different preloads are available. The force can be varied, according to different requirements, and is applicable to variantly thick nerves in any experimental animal, thus enhancing standardization, and making cross-over comparisons of experimental study results possible.

Neural cell transplantation effects on sciatic nerve regeneration after a standardized crush injury in the rat

“…After nerve mobilization, a nonserrated clamp (manufactured by the Institute of Industrial Electronic and Material Sciences, University of Technology, Vienna, Austria) exerting a constant force of 54 N, was used for a period of 30 seconds to create a 3-mm long crush injury, 10 mm above the bifurcation into tibial and common peroneal nerves. 3,4,23 The starting diameter of the sciatic nerve was about 1 mm, flattening during the crush to 2 mm, thus giving a final pressure of P 5 9 MPa. The nerves were kept moist with 378C sterile saline solution throughout the surgical intervention.…”

The sciatic nerve injury model in pre-clinical research

“…This device has proven to be reproducible in in different animal species (Beer et al, 2001;Varejao et al, 2004) and its use is spreading among peripheral nerve regeneration researchers.…”

“…The far most used experimental paradigm for the pre-clinical investigation of peripheral nerve regeneration is represented by the sciatic nerve injury (SNI) model (Sironen et al, 1996;Beer et al, 2001;, Nichols et al, 2005Savastano et al, 2014). Among the various reasons that might explain the preponderancy of SNI employment, two are the most important: (i) the large size of the sciatic nerve which facilitates surgery; (ii) the easy surgical access; (iii) the sought for data that can be comparable with previous studies, the very large majority of which have been carried out using the SNI model.…”

Using the implantable electrical stimulator for peripheral nerve rehabilitation: A study in an animal model

“…According to Beer and Varejao et al [17][18] methods, we used New Zealand rabbits to establish an animal peripheral nerve injury model. Our implantable electrical stimulators were implanted into the model animals.…”