Virginia Research Day 2025

Medical Student Research Clinical

20 Morphology and Morphometry of Median and Femoral Nerves in Males and Females

Torre, N.; Varrey, P.; Haejung, S.; Bridget, H.; Alida, D.; Malek, Z.; Millard, J.; Roballo, K. Corresponding author: ntorre@vt.vcom.edu

Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine - Virginia Campus

Peripheral nerve injuries occur in 13-23/100,000 people and are present in 3-5% of trauma patients. These injuries are debilitating and only 50% of people regain any useful function. The literature has shown that the loss and disruption of intrinsic nerve structure is a primary reason for these failures in recovery. Current practices aim at reconstituting extrinsic nerve structure, yet there has been limited advancement in understanding the intrinsic properties of nerve structures. This has limited the progress of nerve reconstructions. This study aims at classifying median and femoral nerve morphology based on biological sex, laterality, and proximity to allow for patient centered personalized peripheral nerve reconstruction. Median and femoral nerves were

harvested from formalin fixed human cadavers and visualization occurred through a OptixCamm Summit K2 camera operating at 4x magnification to capture cross sections. Analysis was performed using ImageJ software to gather morphological data. A total of 25 cadavers were analyzed, 18 of which had viable median nerve samples, and 8 of which had viable femoral nerve samples. Of the 18 median nerve samples, 10 were female and 8 were male. Of the femoral nerve samples, 4 were male and 3 were female. Statistical significance was observed for the number of fascicles of the femoral nerve on cross section with an average fascicle count of 27.26 for the left and 21.79 for the right (p<0.05). The findings of this study indicate that there may be structural and

morphometric differences associated with femoral nerve laterality in the human body. Understanding the topographical variability in anatomy across the nervous system allows for increased specificity when performing procedures such as peripheral nervous graft transplants or nerve transfers. This provides a patient-centered care approach with the capacity to substantially improve recovery time and healing efficacy after surgical nerve repair procedures, thus allowing patients to regain optimal functional usage post-transplant. This research was performed with the approval of IBC VT # 21-049 and VCOM IRB Record # 2021-023, and funded with intramural VCOM funding.

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