Eur J Anat, 18 (1): 1-7 (2014)

Evaluation of the muscle atrophies occurring after open surgical tenotomy and percutaneous tenotomy

Ali Karaer¹, Firat Seyfettinoğlu², Ali Dülgeroğlu³, Bilal Gümüş³ and Osman A. Bora³

¹Ankara Cubuk State Hospital Orthopaedi Department, ²Adana Numune Research and Educational Hospital,Orthopaedi Department and ³İzmir Atatürk Research and Educational Hospital, Orthopaedi Department

ABSTRACT The trial was designed to compare the atrophies occurring after open surgical tenotomy and percutaneous tenotomy using the experimental model that we established. Fourty Ross-800 hybrid chickens were divided into two equal groups. The first and the second group underwent open surgical tenotomy and percutaneous tenotomy of the Achilles tendon, respectively. The animals were sacrificed after eight weeks, and the wet weight, volume, height, diameter, rate of biomechanical elongations and strength of muscles were measured by precision measurement instruments. H & E staining was performed for the histo-pathological assessment of the muscles. In addition, the preparations were photographed and the rate of fatty infiltration and the muscles were assessed by the pixel counting method. All the data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney u test.The morphological evaluation showed that loss of muscle diameter in the surgical tenotomy group was statistically significantly different to that of the percutaneous tenotomy group (p <0.05). The results of the histo-pathological evaluation and the counting process showed that there were significant results supporting the morphological findings and objectively showing the increase in the fatty tissue in Group 1 (p <0.05).The decrease in the amount of elongation of the muscle at the time of the rupture and an increase in the power that was applied in Group 2 after the biomechanical study support the presence of atrophy and fibrosis and were found to be statistically significant (p <0.05). In this experimental study, atrophy was created in both groups at the end of eight weeks. The amount of atrophy in Group 1 was found to be higher than that of Group 2. The histo-pathological findings and the pure muscle tissue were assessed objectively with a new method called the pixel counting method.

Keywords: Atrophies, Tenotomy, Pixel counting method