Is a Response to Intraoperative Electrical Nerve Stimulation Associated With Recovery After Stretch Injury in the Rat Median Nerve?

The ability to predict recovery using intraoperative nerve stimulation could allow surgeons to distinguish injuries that will likely recover naturally from those likely to benefit from immediate surgical intervention. To identify the clinical scenarios in which patients may benefit from the use of intraoperative stimulation as a prognostic tool, future prospective preclinical studies using larger animal models such as rabbits should evaluate the prognostic abilities of handheld stimulators for multiple types of nerve injury, including crush injury.