Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Sep 18, 2017; 8(9): 688-696
Published online Sep 18, 2017. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v8.i9.688
Benefits of Ilizarov automated bone distraction for nerves and articular cartilage in experimental leg lengthening
Nathalia Shchudlo, Tatyana Varsegova, Tatyana Stupina, Michael Shchudlo, Marat Saifutdinov, Andrey Yemanov
Nathalia Shchudlo, Tatyana Varsegova, Tatyana Stupina, Michael Shchudlo, Marat Saifutdinov, Andrey Yemanov, Laboratory of Morphology FSBI, Russian Ilizarov Scientific Center “Restorative Traumatology and Orthopaedics”, 640014 Kurgan, Russia
Author contributions: Shchudlo N, Varsegova T, Stupina T, Shchudlo M, Saifutdinov M and Yemanov A substantially contributed to the conception and design of the study, acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data; all authors drafted the article and made critical revisions related to the intellectual content of the manuscript, and approved the final version of the article to be published.
Supported by Russian Foundation for Basic Research, No.14-4 4-00010.
Institutional review board statement: The article was reviewed by RISC “RTO” Review Board and statement including: (1) The manuscript is not simultaneously being considered by other journals or already published elsewhere; (2) The manuscript has no redundant publication, plagiarism, or data fabrication or falsification; (3) Experiments involving animal subjects were designed and performed in compliance with the relevant laws regarding the animal care and use of subjects; and (4) Material contained within the manuscript is original, with all information from other sources appropriately referenced.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All animal studies are approved by RISC “RTO” Ethical Committee - exerpts from the minutes #4 (50) under date of December 13, 2016.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Nathalia Shchudlo, DM, Head of Clinical and Experimental Laboratory for Reconstructive and Restorative Microsurgery and Hand Surgery, Laboratory of Morphology FSBI, Russian Ilizarov Scientific Center “Restorative Traumatology and Orthopaedics”, M. Ulianova Street 6, 640014 Kurgan, Russia. nshchudlo@mail.ru
Telephone: +8-9225-631752 Fax: +8-3522-454060
Received: January 26, 2017
Peer-review started: February 7, 2017
First decision: July 10, 2017
Revised: July 24, 2017
Accepted: August 2, 2017
Article in press: August 3, 2017
Published online: September 18, 2017
Processing time: 229 Days and 6 Hours
Abstract
AIM

To determine peculiarities of tissue responses to manual and automated Ilizarov bone distraction in nerves and articular cartilage.

METHODS

Twenty-nine dogs were divided in two experimental groups: Group M - leg lengthening with manual distraction (1 mm/d in 4 steps), Group A - automated distraction (1 mm/d in 60 steps) and intact group. Animals were euthanized at the end of distraction, at 30th day of fixation in apparatus and 30 d after the fixator removal. M-responses in gastrocnemius and tibialis anterior muscles were recorded, numerical histology of peroneal and tibialis nerves and knee cartilage semi-thin sections, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray electron probe microanalysis were performed.

RESULTS

Better restoration of M-response amplitudes in leg muscles was noted in A-group. Fibrosis of epineurium with adipocytes loss in peroneal nerve, subperineurial edema and fibrosis of endoneurium in some fascicles of both nerves were noted only in M-group, shares of nerve fibers with atrophic and degenerative changes were bigger in M-group than in A-group. At the end of experiment morphometric parameters of nerve fibers in peroneal nerve were comparable with intact nerve only in A-group. Quantitative parameters of articular cartilage (thickness, volumetric densities of chondrocytes, percentages of isogenic clusters and empty cellular lacunas, contents of sulfur and calcium) were badly changed in M-group and less changed in A-group.

CONCLUSION

Automated Ilizarov distraction is more safe method of orthopedic leg lengthening than manual distraction in points of nervous fibers survival and articular cartilage arthrotic changes.

Keywords: Limb lengthening; Articular cartilage; Nerve; Histomorphometry; Dog

Core tip: Limb lengthening developed by Ilizarov is now well accepted method for correction of orthopedic problems but in some cases it is complicated with nerve and joint malfunctions or disturbances. In this animal study we present the comparative analysis of quantitative indices of nerves and articular cartilage structural reorganization during lengthening with manual and automatic Ilizarov bone distraction. Results of the study have indicated the benefits of automatic distraction.