Time to surgery and myo-d expression in biceps muscle of adult brachial plexus injury: a preliminary study

BACKGROUND: Brachial Plexus Injury (BPI) is one of the peripheral nerve injuries which causes severe functional impairment and disability. Without prompt treatment, prolonged denervation will cause severe muscle atrophy. MyoD, which is expressed by satellite cells, is one of the parameters that relate to the regeneration process in post-injury muscle and it is presumed to determine the clinical outcome following neurotization procedure. This study aims to understand the correlation between time to surgery (TTS) and MyoD expression in satellite cells in the biceps muscle of adult brachial plexus injury patients. METHODS: Analytic observational study with a cross-sectional design was conducted at Dr. Soetomo General Hospital. All patients with BPI who underwent surgery between May 2013 and December 2015 were included. Muscle biopsy was taken and stained using immunohistochemistry for MyoD expression. Pearson correlation test was used to assess the correlation between MyoD expression with TTS and with age. RESULTS: Twenty-two biceps muscle samples were examined. Most patients are males (81.8%) with an average age of 25.5 years. MyoD expression was found to be highest at TTS of 4 months and then dropped significantly (and plateau) from 9 to 36 months. MyoD expression is significantly correlated with TTS (r=-0.895; p = 0.00) but not with age (r=-0.294; p = 0.184). CONCLUSION: Our study found, from the cellular point of view, that treatment of BPI needs to be done as early as possible before the regenerative potential - as indicated by MyoD expression – declined. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13104-023-06317-y.