Dexmedetomidine to Help Nerve Regeneration in a Rat Sciatic Nerve Injury Model

Figure 2

Perineural dexmedetomidine injection under ultrasound guidance. (a) Expected path of sciatic nerve marked with yellow dotted line. The sciatic nerve runs between the hip joint and the ischial tuberosity toward the knee joint. (b) Sciatic nerve detection by placement of probe obliquely or vertically on expected course. An image of the nerve as detected via ultrasound is shown in Figure 1. (c) Blue dye injection using same volume of DXM (0.08 ml) in experiment. The entry point is indicated by the blue spot. (d–f) A series of photographs of post-blue-dye-injection. After incising the skin between hip joint and ischial tuberosity and dissecting fascia and muscle, blue dye is visible around the sciatic nerve.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)