AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE SUTURE METHOD OF A FINE MOTOR NERVE

A new surgical method has been experimentally deviced by the present author for the end-to-end repair of injured facial nerve of guinea pigs.It needs no saying that the method used for the repair of injured nerve is essential in modem surgery. However, suture of injured nerve is so complicated especially in otolaryngological field of medicine that the results obtained are often unsatisfactory. It is, therefore. desirable that a simple and efficient method should be perfected which will always give satisfactory results. The method described in this paper will meet that purpose.The principle of this method consists in twining the pericapsular connective tissues of the facial, nerve. Namely, the pericapsular connective tissues were twined without using any suture material so as to bring the ends of the nerve into contact each other, and then the injured portion was fixed with surrounding tissues.Results and Consideration:1. Following the fixation above stated, the nerve axis was observed, to regenerate from the proximal end at the rate of 1 to 0.2mm per diem, and completely regenerated within 12 to 16 weeks.2. Implantation of dissected nerve trunk was also undertaken in addition to this method. The nerve axis regenerated within 16 to 24 weeks, and there seems to exist no appreciable relation, between the results and the quality of the material implanted.3. This method should be performed as immediately after the injury as possible in order to give a satisfactory result.4. The preferable points of this method were as follows, 1) Material used for repair was readily obtained.2) No serious foreign body reaction was brought forth.3) Satisfactory repair was undertaken without injuring the nerve axis with suture material.