Speeding up nerve regrowth for trauma patients
Electrical stimulation a week before surgery causes nerves to regenerate
three to five times faster, leading to better outcomes.

Date:
August 19, 2020
Source:
University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry
Summary:
Researchers have found a treatment that increases the speed of
nerve regeneration by three to five times, leading to much better
outcomes for trauma surgery patients.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A University of Alberta researcher has found a treatment that increases
the speed of nerve regeneration by three to five times, leading to much
better outcomes for trauma surgery patients.


==========================================================================
"We use the term 'time is muscle,'" said Christine Webber, an
associate professor in the U of A's anatomy division and a member
of the Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute. "If that regrowing
nerve can't get to the muscle fast enough, you're not going to get a
functional repair." Peripheral nerve injury occurs in about three per
cent of trauma victims. The slow nature of nerve regeneration means that
often muscles atrophy before the nerve has a chance to grow and reconnect.

That's where conditioning electrical stimulation (CES) comes in.

Webber and her collaborators -- plastic surgery resident and former PhD
student Jenna-Lynn Senger, and physical rehabilitation clinician Ming
Chan -- have examined CES in many previous publications. The process
involves electrically stimulating a nerve at the fairly low rate of 20
hertz for one hour. A week after the CES treatment, nerve surgery is
done, and the nerves grow back three to five times faster than if the
surgery was done without CES.

In their latest work on CES, Webber's group examined animal models with
foot drop, a common injury that affects patients' quality of life by
impeding their ability to walk normally. Previously, the only treatments
for foot drop were orthotics that affect a patient's gait, or surgery.

Webber's lab performed a distal nerve transfer in which a nerve near
the damaged one was electrically stimulated, then a week later a branch
of the nerve was cut and placed near the target of the non-functioning
nerve. The newly transferred nerve would then be primed and ready to
regrow, at a much faster rate, into the muscles that lift the foot.

CES can be a tool for faster nerve regrowth in any portion of the
peripheral nervous system. Ming Chan, also a Neuroscience and Mental
Health Institute member, has started a clinical trial in which CES is
used before a nerve repair of the carpal tunnel.

Webber hopes to bring the information gained from examining nerve
transfers in the leg -- a difficult body part for nerve regrowth due to
the vast area the nerve must cover -- to clinical trials within the next
year or two.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Alberta_Faculty_of_Medicine_&_Dentistry.

Original written by Adrianna MacPherson. Note: Content may be edited
for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Jenna‐Lynn B. Senger, Karyne N. Rabey, Michael J. Morhart,
K. Ming
Chan, Christine A. Webber. Conditioning Electrical Stimulation
Accelerates Regeneration in Nerve Transfers. Annals of Neurology,
2020; 88 (2): 363 DOI: 10.1002/ana.25796 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200819120706.htm

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