Fig 1.
Photographs of sural nerve graft (A); Exposed spinal cord with dural (black arrow) and peridural (gray arrow) membranes indicated (B); Column containing impactor rod positioned over exposed spinal cord (C); Spinal cord injury (D); and sural nerve graft within a spinal cord defect (E). Black vertical thin arrows point to the intact spinal cord and the black vertical thick arrows point to the area of spinal cord injury (D) and sural nerve (E).
Table 1.
Sensory and motor function assessment score.
Fig 2.
Sensory and motor outcomes including response to touch (A), effort to stand (B), rump scooting (C), body position (D), stifle movement (E), hip movement (F) and response to manipulation (G).
Fig 3.
Three-dimensional computed tomography myelogram reconstructions (left view) of gilts with (reconstructed) and without (untreated) sural nerve spinal cord reconstruction before (pre-surgery), immediately after (post-surgery), and 6 and 12 weeks after impact injury.
Myelogram contrast (red) was manually segmented on 2-dimensional computed tomography slices.
Fig 4.
Spinal column measures performed on 2-dimensional computed tomography images with time points combined including canal height and cord width (A); spinal cord area (B); spinal cord/dural sac area ratio (C); spinal cord/vertebral canal area ratio (D) and dural sac/vertebral canal area ratio. Levels are indicated on each graph.
Fig 5.
Measures on 2-dimensional spinal column computed tomography images before (pre-op), immediately after (post-op) and up to 12 weeks after injury with treatment groups combined including dural sac area (A), dural sac/vertebral canal area ratio (B) and percentage of CT slices between T7 and L2 without contrast (C).
Fig 6.
Post-mortem magnetic resonance myelogram on isolated spinal columns of gilts without (A,B) and with (C-E) sural nerve spinal cord reconstruction following blunt impact injury 12 weeks after surgery. None of the controls and two of the reconstructed spinal cord MRI images showed some continuity of the cord (downward arrows with circle). Thin upward arrows point to the intact spinal cord proximal and distal to the area of injury and the thick downward arrows point to the area of discontinuity of the spinal cord.
Fig 7.
Histological alterations in the spinal cord of pigs subjected to laminectomy (A-D) or laminectomy with spinal cord reconstruction (E-H). Histological changes were similar between the two groups. From low magnification, there are extensive areas of necrosis with loss of neuroparenchyma and cavitation (A and E, asterisks; d: dura mater). There is extensive axonal degeneration (B and F) with spheroids (arrows) and digestion chambers composed of axonal debris and gitter cells (arrowheads). Affected areas also show reactive gliosis (C and G, arrowheads) with intense GFAP immunolabeling (D and H). Stain: H&E (A, B, C, E, F and G), GFAP immunohistochemistry (D and H). Magnification: 50x (A, E), 200X (B, C, D, F, G, H).