Nerve fascicles localization and fiber types quantification in human tibial nerve and its muscular branches [İnsan tibial sinir ve müsküler dallari{dotless}nda sinir fasikül lokalizasyonu ve lif tipleri miktar belirlemesi]

Background: tibial nerve and its muscular branches are often used as donors for repairing nerve injuries in the leg. however,the localization of nerve fascicles and a quantitative analysis of the type of nerve fibers in this nerve and its branches are not understood in detail. we studied this question hoping to provide guidance for microsurgery. methods: twenty sets of tibial nerve and its muscular branches in the popliteal fossa were obtained from either human cadavers or freshly amputated limbs. samples were frozensectioned and processed with karnovsky-roots' method. results: on the cross sections of tibial nerve and its muscular branches,somatosensory fascicles are mainly found in the posteromedial area and somatic motor fascicles in the anterolateral region. the number of somatic motor fibers in the soleus muscle branch is 5620.36±98.56,the highest among other muscular branches of tibial nerve. the γ-thin myelinated fiber in the tibialis posterior branch is the highest. conclusions: the soleus muscle branch should be considered as the first choice when selecting donors for nerve injury. the tibialis posterior muscular branch should not be cut during the repair of the common peroneal nerve and its branches. furthermore,our results also suggested that the anterolateral region of tibial nerve is the optimal location for anastomoses.