REGENERATION OF NERVES AFTER ANASTOMOSIS OF SMALL PROXIMAL TO LARGER PERIPHERAL NERVES:  AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY CONCERNED WITH RELIEF OF PERIPHERAL NEUROGENIC PARESIS

Recently, Dogliotti¹ recommended and attempted clinically to obtain increased innervation and function in paretic muscles supplied by a partially paralyzed nerve by means of simple section and immediate anastomosis of the involved nerve trunk. He had found experimentally that by anastomosing a portion of the proximal segment to the whole distal segment of the sciatic nerve in the dog he could demonstrate an increase in the number of nerve fibers regenerating below the point of anastomosis. This, in addition to the fact that his animals made a good functional recovery, led him to interpret his results as indicating reinnervation of muscles and a return of muscular function in excess of that originally and normally mediated by the proximal nerve fibers. If this interpretation of Dogliotti's findings is correct and if this procedure should prove practical, its value becomes obvious in the rehabilitation of patients with peripheral neurogenic paresis, such