Dynamic viscoelasticity of the healing ligament treated by in vivo intermittent oxygen exposure in rats

The effects of intermittent exposure to hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) on experimentally induced ligament tear were studied in the right hind limb of 10 male Wistar rats. Ten rats were divided into the following two groups of five: Group A, merely exposed to normobaric room air (control group); Group B, treated with HBO at 2 ATA 100% O2×60 min×once/day (HBO group). The dynamic stiffness and tanδ of the injured patellar ligament were measured 4 weeks after infliction with the original viscoelastic spectrometer. From our results, the stiffness of injured ligament did not recover from the average of control site at 4 weeks after injury, whether or not HBO was used (p<0.05). The tanδ of injured site at 11 Hz in the HBO group was higher than that in control group (p<0.05). tudy suggests, from the point of elasticity, that the ligament of accelerated collagen synthesis with HBO were still fragile at the time of 4 weeks after wounding. However, dynamic viscoelasticity was found to be not influenced enough by in vivo intermittent oxygen supply.