EFFECT OF LASER THERAPY ON EXPERIMENTAL REPAIR OF PERIPHERAL NERVE INJURY AFTER TUBULIZATION TECHNIQUE FILLED WITH ADIPOSE TISSUE (Atena Editora)

Abstract

Peripheral nerve injuries are common and can cause great sensory and functional loss in the patient. In order to minimize this loss and the final functional prognosis of this patient with quality of life, many surgical and post-surgical techniques and treatments are studied. Therapy with stem cells derived from adipose tissue is one of them, since they are pluripotent mesenchymal cells with the capacity to differentiate into several lineages. However, this method still has limited success in vitro, impacting the clinical area as it is an invasive technique, with risks of mutagenesis, in addition to high costs. Another technique that was used was end-to-end neurorrhaphy (NTT), used in the repair of peripheral nerve injuries to unite the injured proximal and distal stumps using a suture, but if the distance between the stumps is approximately 5 cm, the use of an autologous nerve graft is recommended, a nerve repair strategy considered the gold standard in humans, however, it will result in sensory loss for the patient. As a complementary therapeutic resource, laser therapy has gained prominence as it is a non-invasive treatment and has positive results in regeneration and functional recovery. This research aimed to evaluate the effect of laser therapy on the repair of peripheral nerve injury after the tubulation technique filled with adipose tissue. We used 60 male Wistar rats, 80 days old, provided by the Vivarium of the ``Universidade do Sagrado Coração``, randomly divided into six experimental groups with 10 animals each: Control Group (CG), Denervated Group (GD), Tubulization Group (GT), Fat Tubing Group (GTG), Tubing and Laser Group (GTL) and Fat Tubing and Laser Group (GTGL). The GTL and GTGL groups underwent laser treatment three times a week lasting 90 seconds for 90 days. In the morphometric evaluations of the Soleus, Extensor Digitis Longus and Tibialis Cranial muscles and in the functional evaluation, the GTGL group obtained the best result. Therefore, with the results obtained, it was possible to conclude that the association of fat in the tubing, as well as the use of laser therapy, provided positive results in the process of peripheral nerve repair and functional improvement.