The effect of weight-bearing exercise and non-weight-bearing exercise on gait in rats with sciatic nerve crush injury

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to access the effect of weight bearing exercise (treadmill exercise) and non-weight-bearing exercise (swimming exercise) on gait in the recovery process after a sciatic nerve crush injury. [Subjects and Methods] Rats were randomly divided into a swimming group (n=3) with non-weight-bearing exercise after a sciatic nerve crush and a treadmill group (n=3) with weight bearing exercise after a sciatic nerve crush. Dartfish is a program that can analyze and interpret motion through video images. The knee lateral epicondyle, lateral malleolus, and metatarsophalangeal joint of the fifth toe were marked by black dots before recording. [Results] There were significant differences in TOK (knee angle toe off) and ICK (knee angle at initial contact) in the swimming group and in TOK, ICA (ankle angle at initial contact), and ICK in the treadmill group. In comparison between groups, there were significant differences in TOA (ankle angle in toe off) and ICA at the 7th day. [Conclusion] There was no difference between weight bearing and non-weight-bearing exercise in sciatic nerve damage, and both exercises accelerated the recovery process in this study.