Effects of Combined Blood Flow Restriction and Swimming on Motor Recovery and Muscle Atrophy Prevention Following Sciatic Nerve Crush Injury

This study aimed to investigate the effects of combined swimming and BFR interventions in delaying muscle atrophy and restoring motor function in rats with sciatic nerve crush injury. 

Thirty Sprague-Dawley male rats (200-250 grams) underwent unilateral sciatic nerve crush injury surgery. Following surgery, the rats were randomly divided into three groups: a swimming exercise combined with BFR group (BS, n=10), a swimming intervention-only group (S, n=10), and a sham-intervention control group (C, n=10). Six days after nerve injury, interventions were administered for 20 minutes per session for a total of 10 days. Outcome measurements, including walking track analysis to calculate the Sciatic Function Index (SFI), Tibial Function Index (TFI), and Peroneal Function Index (PFI), were collected pre- and post-surgery, as well as post-treatment. Morphological studies of gastrocnemius muscles were conducted using hematoxylin and eosin staining to assess cross-sectional area. 

In the assessment of motor function, both the BS and S groups exhibited significant differences in SFI, TFI, and PFI values between pre- and post-surgery measurements, as well as between pre- and post-treatment measurements (p 0.05). In contrast, the C group showed no significant differences in these three values (p > 0.05). However, no significant differences were observed between pre- and post-treatment values in the BS and S groups (p > 0.05). Morphological studies demonstrated a significantly higher ratio of injured-to-uninjured muscle cross-sectional area in the BS group compared to the other two groups (p 0.05), with the S group exhibiting the lowest ratio. 

The findings of this study demonstrated that combined swimming and BFR interventions was effective in delaying muscle atrophy and improving motor function in rats with sciatic nerve crush injury. Both isolated swimming and BFR-combined swimming have been shown to improve sciatic nerve function, as measured by the SFI, TFI, and PFI, compared to the control group. However, BFR-combined swimming demonstrated superior muscle preservation, evidenced by the restoration of denervated muscle cell size.

These results suggest that the combination of swimming and BFR may be a promising therapeutic approach for promoting recovery and preventing muscle atrophy in the early stage of peripheral nerve injury.