ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Chirurgia Del Piede 2001 June;25(2):93-8

Copyright © 2001 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

The proprioceptive innervation of tarsal sinus

Spagnolli G., Pasquali M. P., Biscaglia R., Hacker G. W.

Background. The authors' aim is to extend the study of proprioceptive innervation of tarsal sinus to other ligaments such as the dorsal talonavicular ligament and the plantar calcaneonavicular ligament.
Methods. The histologic study was made on paraffin-embedded preparations of dorsal talonavicular ligament and plantar calcaneonavicular ligament. Indirect immunohistochemical technique with IGSS (immuno-gold-silver- staining) method was used and this revealed itself to be higly specific and sensitive for neuronal and neuroendocrine structures if compared with the routinely used techniques (gold tetrachloride, acetylcholinesterase, etc.). Some preparations were also treated with indirect immunofluorescence (by previous use of a freezing microtome).
Results. The histologic preparations treated with this technique allowed to demostrate the presence of several neural structures in the examined ligaments: isolated neural fibers and neural endings either noradrenergic or corpuscular, such as Pacini and Golgi-Mazzoni bodies (especially in the osteotendinous insertion).
Conclusions. We would suggest in the future, a combined study (on a serial sections treated with the IGSS technique) of the histologic samples with computerized tridimensional reconstruction in order to properly identify the different receptors found in the different ligaments. This could allow an expanded study of the physiopathology of the pathologic foot and the study of other anatomic compartments such as the hip and knee joints and the problems related to the biologic transplants in the reconstructive surgery of the capsular and ligamentous lesions.