• Viviane Z Sacharuk, Gisele A Lovatel, Jocemar Ilha, Simone Marcuzzo, Alexandre Severo do Pinho, Léder L Xavier, Milton A Zaro, and Matilde Achaval.
• Programa de Pós-Graduação em Neurociências, Instituto de Ciências Básicas da Saúde, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
• Clinics (Sao Paulo). 2011 Jan 1; 66 (7): 1259-66.

IntroductionPeripheral nerves are often damaged by direct mechanical injury, diseases, and tumors. The peripheral nerve injuries that result from these conditions can lead to a partial or complete loss of motor, sensory, and autonomic functions, which in turn are related to changes in skin temperature, in the involved segments of the body. The aim of this study was to evaluate the changes in hind paw skin temperature after sciatic nerve crush in rats in an attempt to determine whether changes in skin temperature correlate with the functional recovery of locomotion.MethodsWistar rats were divided into three groups: control (n = 7), sham (n = 25), and crush (n = 25). All groups were subjected to thermographic, functional, and histological assessments.ResultsΔT in the crush group was different from the control and sham groups at the 1st, 3rd and 7rd postoperative days (p<0.05). The functional recovery from the crush group returned to normal values between the 3rd and 4th week post-injury, and morphological analysis of the nerve revealed incomplete regeneration at the 4th week after injury.DiscussionThis study is the first demonstration that sciatic nerve crush in rats induces an increase in hind paw skin temperature and that skin temperature changes do not correlate closely with functional recovery.

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