EFFECT OF ELECTRICAL STIMULATION ON ATROPHY OF DENERVATED SKELETAL MUSCLE

Abstract

Reid¹ noted that a beneficial effect was produced by weak galvanic stimulation of denervated frog muscle. He pointed out that "the application to the treatment of certain cases of paralysis was so obvious as to require no comment." Langley² and Hartman, Blatz and Kilborn,³ from work with rabbits, concluded that electrical stimulation did not appear to benefit denervated muscle. Chor and associates,⁴ in work with monkeys, likewise found that electrical stimulation, as well as passive movement and massage, was ineffective, up to a period of at least six weeks after denervation, in retarding atrophy and degeneration of the denervated muscle. Fischer,⁵ using rats, demonstrated that electrical stimulation exerted a notable retarding influence on the loss in weight of denervated muscle. Such stimulation, Fischer observed, was accompanied by a distinctly higher degree of power in the denervated muscle and a slight decrease in the loss of