Establishment of the chronic constriction injury (CCI) neuropathic pain model in rats

CCI of the sciatic nerve was applied to induce neuropathic pain in rats [10, 11]. In brief, animals were given 40 mg/kg body weight of sodium pentobarbital by intraperitoneal injection. Under anesthesia, the left sciatic nerve of the rats in the CCI or the CCI + HBO group was exposed at the mid-thigh level following blunt dissection of the left biceps femoris. Four ligatures were then loosely tied around the exposed sciatic nerve at the proximal area of the trifurcation at 1 mm intervals. After induction of CCI, the wound was closed. An identical dissection was carried out in animals from the sham operation group, however, the sciatic nerve in these control rats was not ligated.