Peripheral Retrograde Nerve Regeneration After Sciatic Nerve Injury in a Rat Model: A New Concept in Peripheral Nerve Surgery

Background: Neuroregeneration after nerve injury occurs via anterograde (proximal in the distal) regrowth. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that nerve regeneration occurs not only proximally to distally as classically described, but also distally to proximally using a rat model with a left sciatic nerve injury, with or without repair, compared to a healthy uninjured control group.