INTRODUCTION: The functional recovery after peripheral nerve injury is related to extrinsic and intrinsic factors of peripheral nervous system, like trauma severity and conditions of the end-organs. The atrophy is a major change of muscles after nerve injury, and once installed, it acts as a barrier to axonal growth during muscle reinnevation. The use of electrical stimulation is routine in the field of physical therapy and aims to minimize or prevent muscle atrophy and facilitate recovery from peripheral nerve injury. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this review is to evaluate the effects of electrical stimulation on tropics characteristics of denervated muscle. METHODS: Articles published between 1990 and 2010 from periodicals indexed in the PUBMED database were selected, using the following keywords: "muscle denervation AND electric stimulation" and "muscular atrophy AND electric stimulation". Were included experimental studies in animals (rats) that had used a peripheral nerve lesion as a model of muscle denervation and that had evaluated the effect of electrical muscle stimulation on cross-sectional area and/or muscle mass weight of denervated muscles. RESULTS: 9 articles were selected for this review. CONCLUSION: The effect of electrical stimulation is directly related to the intervention protocol's characteristics, which when applied properly had the effect of delaying, in some cases, or prevents the atrophy of denervated muscle.
Muscle denervation; Electric stimulation; Muscular atrophy
