Outcomes of Common Peroneal Nerve Lesions After Surgical Repair With Acidic Fibroblast Growth Factor

Abstract

There have been no clinical trials concerning the effect of acidic fibroblast growth factor (aFGF) on human peripheral nerve lesions. Our interest was focused on the question of whether a repair strategy incorporating growth factors could be applied to repair of common peroneal nerve lesions. This study involved three groups of patients with common peroneal nerve lesions: group 1 (n = 21) received surgical repair with fibrin glue added with aFGF; group 2 (n = 8) received surgical repair only; group 3 (n = 16) did not receive any surgical intervention. All patients received electrophysiologic examinations and physical examination at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months postsurgically. Group 1 demonstrated significantly increased average muscle strength score by 0.4299 and 0.5045 at 6 and 12 months after the operation (p = 0.0197 and 0.0297, respectively). In groups 2 and 3 patients, however, significant increase of average muscle strength scores was not achieved either at 6 or 12 months postoperatively. During the first follow-up evaluation the average muscle strength score in group 1 (3.06 +/- 1.60) was significantly higher than those in group 2 (1.04 +/- 0.86) and group 3 (1.65 +/- 1.43) (p = 0.005). However, significant difference was not achieved during the second follow-up evaluation. This study demonstrated the potential of this innovative repair strategy with aFGF treatment to facilitate nerve regeneration and motor function recovery following peripheral nerve lesions.