NERVE REGENERATION IN THE RAT FOLLOWING TUBULAR SPLICING OF SEVERED NERVES

Abstract

For many years a method for uniting severed nerves has been used in experiments in my laboratory which has proved so superior to the conventional suture methods that the possibility of adapting it to the surgical needs of human beings deserves serious consideration. While the studies pursued with this method have branched into many phases of the problem of nerve restoration, the following brief account will confine itself to those aspects which seem to be of immediate practical interest. The method consists in splicing the stumps of a severed nerve by inserting them in a closely fitting sleeve of live artery. First devised for use in the frog and toad¹the method was then applied to the rat²and has lately been used extensively in work on this animal. Save for a brief note,³no special description of the technic and of the processes of nerve regeneration