Peripheral nerve injury.

Date:
1972
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Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

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Credit

Peripheral nerve injury. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). Source: Wellcome Collection.

About this work

Description

Dr Peter Thomas lectures on peripheral nerve injury. He uses a wide range of visual aids to demonstrate the anatomy of nerves and to describe, in depth, their complex and intricate function. Using detailed electron micrograph studies, Thomas shows, often at a cellular level, aspects of nerve cell degeneration, nerve injury, nerve constriction and some forms of nerve regeneration following damage. 8 segments

Publication/Creation

London : University of London Audio-Visual Centre, 1972.

Physical description

1 encoded moving image (40.35 min.) : sound, black and white.

Duration

00:40:35

Copyright note

University of London

Terms of use

Unrestricted
CC-BY-NC
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.0 UK: England & Wales

Language note

In English

Creator/production credits

Presented by Dr PK Thomas, Royal Free Hospital, London. Introduced by Dr Ian Gilliland. Produced by Peter Bowen. Made for British Postgraduate Medical Federation. Made by University of London Audio-Visual Centre.

Notes

This video is one of around 310 titles, originally broadcast on Channel 7 of the ILEA closed-circuit television network, given to Wellcome Trust from the University of London Audio-Visual Centre shortly after it closed in the late 1980s. Although some of these programmes might now seem rather out-dated, they probably represent the largest and most diversified body of medical video produced in any British university at this time, and give a comprehensive and fascinating view of the state of medical and surgical research and practice in the 1970s and 1980s, thus constituting a contemporary medical-historical archive of great interest. The lectures mostly take place in a small and intimate studio setting and are often face-to-face. The lecturers use a wide variety of resources to illustrate their points, including film clips, slides, graphs, animated diagrams, charts and tables as well as 3-dimensional models and display boards with movable pieces. Some of the lecturers are telegenic while some are clearly less comfortable about being recorded; all are experts in their field and show great enthusiasm to share both the latest research and the historical context of their specialist areas.

Contents

Segment 1 Gilliland introduces Thomas. Thomas speaks to camera and describes how the technique of electron microscopy has allowed for more detailed study of the peripheral nervous system. He shows a selection of slides, mostly taken from electron micrographs, of sections through nerves including the serial nerve and the perineurium. He explains in detail the differences between nodes and fibres, focusing one how they affect and alter the shape of each other. Time start: 00:00:00:00 Time end: 00:05:57:00 Length: 00:05:57:00
Segment 2 Thomas shows an electron micrograph of a myelinated nerve fibre - these are fibres surrounded by a myelin sheath which insulates fibres and axons from electrical stimulation. Next, myelinated nerve fibres are shown in electron micrograph studies, magnified to a very high level. Thomas then refers to a diagram to show the difference between myelinated and unmyelinated nerve fibres; unmyelinated nerve fibres are often present where there is degenerative disease of the peripheral nervous system and in, for instance, multiple sclerosis. Time start: 00:05:57:00 Time end: 00:11:20:00 Length: 00:05:23:00
Segment 3 Thomas explains some of the causes for lesions in the nerve fibres. He refers in particular to Wallerian degeneration, a process which occurs when a nerve fibre's myelin surface has been cut or damaged. He shows diagrams and electron micrographs to illustrate this complex process. Time start: 00:11:20:00 Time end: 00:15:44:00 Length: 00:04:24:00
Segment 4 We see a series of diagrams and electron micrographs detailing different aspects of nerve cell degeneration. Thomas explains each form of degeneration at the most detailed cellular level. Time start: 00:15:44:00 Time end: 00:21:51:00 Length: 00:06:07:00
Segment 5 Thomas continues to describe the cellular level processes that occur during nerve cell degeneration. He then turns to discuss changes that occur at the site of a nerve injury. He describes an experiment he and a colleague, Haftek, made in which they examined nerves compressed with smooth-tipped forceps. Time start: 00:21:51:00 Time end: 00:24:59:00 Length: 00:03:08:00
Segment 6 Thomas talks further about his experiment with colleague, Haftek. Through a series of electron micrographs he shows the damaged nerve at various stages after their initial compression of it with forceps; from 1 hour after injury to 3 days later. After this, Thomas discusses nerve injury in which, rather than compression, there is complete transection; the two endings of a nerve are completely severed from each other. He shows, using light microscopy, how new cells begin to grow from each stump of the severed nerve - some of these can grow quite long and are often called 'ghost nerves.' This process of new growth from severed nerve endings is known as nerve regeneration. Time start: 00:24:59:00 Time end: 00:30:55:00 Length: 00:05:56:00
Segment 7 Thomas talks further about nerve regeneration, using as an example, an experiment on the peroneal nerve of a rabbit. He plots the regrowth of nodes against those of fibres on a graph; the fibres grown back to almost normal length while the internodal length remains very stunted. Thomas next discusses an experiment by Paul Weiss which aimed to show how regeneration occurs in a crushed nerve fibre; the stages of this experiment are shown in electron micrographs. Time start: 00:30:55:00 Time end: 00:35:47:00 Length: 00:04:52:00
Segment 8 Thomas concludes with a discussion about the regeneration of unmyelinated nerve fibres. He refers to diagrams and electron micrographs of an experiment on a rabbit with a crushed vagus nerve. This study shows that unmyelinated nerve fibres can also regenerate in a pattern almost identical to that of myelinated fibres. However, this seems to be dependent on the presence of myelinated fibres close by at the time of regeneration. Thomas admits that this process is not yet fully understood. Time start: 00:35:47:00 Time end: 00:40:35:18 Length: 00:04:48:18

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