Tiam Mana Saffari

96 CHAPTER 5 Vascular volume and vascular surface area at two weeks The vascular volume was successfully measured in the three experimental groups and compared to control. At two weeks, the control nerve samples measured 4.5 ± 0.3% vessel (mean ± SEM), compared to 2.5 ± 0.3% in nerve autografts, 1.4 ± 0.4% in nerve allografts and 3.4 ± 0.6% in the SIEF group. Control samples were superior to autograft (P<0.05) and allograft (P<0.0001), and comparable to the SIEF group (P=0.1, Figure 3A). The vascular surface area measured 23.0 ± 0.6% vessel in control samples, 23.4 ± 0.9% in autografts, 13.8 ± 1.5% in allografts and 28.7 ± 1.1% in SIEF nerves. SIEF nerves were superior to all other groups and allografts were inferior to all other groups (P<0.01 compared to control, P<0.05 compared to autograft, P<0.0001 compared to allograft) as shown in Figure 3B. Figure 3. Short-term vascularization at two weeks measured by vascular volume (micro CT, 3A) and vascular surface area (conventional digital photography, 3B). Results of control, autograft, allograft and allograft wrapped in a pedicled superficial inferior epigastric fascial (SIEF) flap expressed as percentage (vessel %) of the total nerve area and were given as the mean ± SEM. Please note that the range of the Y-axes is different. * Indicates significance at P<0.05, ** P<0.01, *** P<0.0001. SEM = Standard error of the mean.