Virginia Research Day 2022

Medical Student Research Biomedical

13 Femoral Nerve Macroanalysis And Its Association With Sex

Joshua Snyder; Jonathan Millard; Kelly Roballo Corresponding author: Jsnyder01@vt.vcom.edu

VCOM Virginia

Introduction: Peripheral nerve injuries (PNI) occur in approximately 1.64% of people who have had trauma involving the upper or lower limb, and only about 50% of patients regain useful function after recovery with current treatments for PNI. One presenting challenge for treating PNI is the complexity found within the nerve, as nerve morphology differs among people of different sex, age, body size, and section of the nerve itself. The femoral nerve is no exception as the fascicle number and arrangement, size, and length differs among all people. This research attempts to categorize femoral nerve morphology based on sex, laterality, length, diameter, and number of fascicles, looking for trends in the organization in these categories. Methods: 9 cross-section samples were collected from both the left and right femoral nerves of 10 human donors’ postmortem. 3 samples were taken from each the distal, middle, and proximal section of the nerve. The tissue samples were visualized and photographed with light microscopy and an

(averages: distal 2.71mm vs. 4.22mm, middle 2.57mm vs 2.81mm, and proximal 2.52mm vs. 3.55mm). Overall females present with a larger diameter than males (overall average for all 3 sections: 2.81mm vs. 2.62mm; p=0.067678). This study also found that there is similarity in the length of the left and right femoral nerve in comparison to males and females. The overall lengths between left and right nerves were similar as well (9.12cm and 9.27cm). Conclusions: These results may lead to future prediction of nerve morphology based on a patient’s sex, associated laterality, and the damaged section of the femoral nerve. Screening for nerve grafts that are similar to predicted morphology for a patient would potentially benefit current treatment strategies of peripheral nerve damage and increase the effectiveness of nerve grafts.

OptixCam Summit K2 camera. Images were analyzed with ImageJ software for nerve diameter and fascicles count. Results: Preliminary results indicates that females have more fascicles in the left distal section compared to males (averages: 12.6 vs. 9.67) with p= 0.057992, and males had more fascicles in the distal section on the right side (average: 12.56 vs. 8.8). Males have more fascicles in the left middle and proximal sections when compared to females (averages: middle 15.89 vs. 10.33, proximal 12.67 vs. 10.75). Females had more fascicles in the right middle section (8.47 vs. 6.11). In both male and female, there are more fascicles present on the left side than the right side in all segments, except for males having more fascicles on the right side in the distal section (right 12.56 vs. left 9.67). The diameter of the left femoral nerve was bigger in females for all 3 sections (averages: distal 3.09mm vs. 1.24mm, middle 2.95mm vs. 1.44mm, and proximal 3.01mm vs. 2.47mm), whereas the right femoral nerve diameter was bigger in males for all 3 sections

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