Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Microwave had been widely used in medical field, which can lead to local coagulation necrosis and repair the necrosis with fibrous tissue. However, whether microwave coagulation can be used in stomatology is poorly understood. 
OBJECTIVE: To observe the functional and volumetric changes of skeletal muscles following microwave coagulation, and to explore the possibility of microwave coagulation for volumetric reduction of skeletal muscle.
METHODS: Both sides of tibialis anterior muscle of 20 New Zealand rabbits were exposed; one side was coagulated by
2 450 MHz microwave therapeutic instrument at 70 W for 20 seconds. No treatment was performed at the other side. Rabbits were sacrificed at hours 24, 48, weeks 1 and 8 after microwave coagulation. The volumetric changes of the ablated tibialis anterior muscle were measured, and electricitic physiology observations were conducted on the ablated muscle at 8 weeks after microwave coagulation before being sacrificed. 　
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The volume of ablated muscle increased at hours 24 and 48, which was (5.82±0.93) and (6.04±0.47) mL, especially greater at hour 48 after microwave coagulation. After 1 week, the muscle volume began to decrease to (4.90±0.80) mL, reduced to (4.27±0.67) mL at week 8, which was 23.6% volumetric loss. However, the electrophysiologic observation showed that the latent periods were (1.765±0.393) and (1.760±0.394) ms, and the wave width was (6.273±0.808) and (6.259±0.773) ms of the control group and experimental group, respectively, without apparent differences (P > 0.05). The volume of the skeleton muscle increased at hour 48 after microwave coagulation, and then decreased, but the muscle function of the skeleton muscle can be preserved.