Abstract: Predicting Wound Complications following Plastic Surgeon Closure of Spine Surgeries

Methods: Twenty-four Sprague Dawley rats were divided into 2 groups. All underwent left sciatic nerve injury, leaving a 10mm gap. The injury was repaired using either: 1) Reverse autograft – the 10mm cut segment was oriented 180° and used to coapt the proximal and distal ends or 2) UBM conduit the 10mm nerve gap was bridged with UBM conduit. Validated behavior assessments such as Sciatic Function Index (SFI) and Foot Fault Asymmetry Scores (FF) were performed weekly. At 6 weeks, the repaired nerves as well as bilateral gastrocnemius/soleus muscles were harvested from each animal. Nerves were evaluated using immunohistochemistry (IHC) for motor and sensory axon staining, proximal, within, and distal to the conduit/graft. The net wet muscle weights were calculated to assess the degree of muscle atrophy. Statistical significance was determined using Mann-Whitney U test.