Histological Consequences of Needle-Nerve Contact following Nerve Stimulation in a Pig Model

Table 2

Treatment groups and controls. NNC, Needle-nerve contact; NN, needle-nerve; Giemsa, staining according to the Giemsa method; CD68, specific staining of CD68 positive leucocytes (macrophages) applying immunohistochemistry [10]; KB, myelin staining according to the Kluver-Barrera method [11, 12]; SD, standard deviation.

			Controls
	High current (1.0 mA)	Low current (0.2 mA)	Non- treatment (brachial plexus)	Positive control (ligature)	Non- treatment (sciatic nerve)	Current (1.0 mA) without NNC	NNC with current (1.0mA)	NNC without current
Nerve specimen (𝑛)	16	16	7	5	7	5	5	5
NNC (𝑛)	1	15
NN distance mean ± SD (mm)	2.9±1.2	0.3±1.0				4
Slices (𝑛) Giemsa/CD68/KB	2340/80/68	2490/92/71	780/16/16	400/52/48	850/16/16	870/25/45	780/52/48	890/82/94
Hematoma (Giemsa) (𝑛, specimen)	0	0	0	5	0	0	0	0
Avital myelin (KB) (𝑛, specimen)	0	0	0	5	0	0	0	0
Monocytic cells mean ± SD (%)	—	42	—	42	—	—	40	45