Spared Nerve Injury Model of Neuropathic Pain in Mice

Experimental models of peripheral nerve injury have been developed to study mechanisms of neuropathic pain in living animals. The spared nerve injury (SNI) model in rodents is a partial denervation model, in which the common peroneal and tibial nerves are injured, producing consistent and reproducible tactile hypersensitivity in the skin territory of the spared, intact sural nerve. SNI-operated mice require less force applied to the affected limb to elicit a withdrawal behavior as compared to sham mice. This effect is observed as early as 2 days after surgery and lasts for at least 1 month. We describe detailed surgical procedures to establish the SNI mouse model that has been widely used for investigating mechanisms of neuropathic pain.