Modern surgical management of peripheral nerve gap

Phosphate glass fibres and their role in neuronal polarization and axonal growth direction

“…For these reasons, nerve guidance channels based on polymeric materials sutured in-between the two nerve stumps have been developed and are currently used to assist in directing axons from the proximal to the distal nerve stump [19,20]. At present, the use of such guidance channels is limited to short nerve defects, up to 3 cm [21]. For large nerve gaps, exogenous supports are needed to enable the regenerating fibres to cross the gap [18].…”

Challenges in sciatic nerve repair: anatomical considerations

“…After exploiting all autologous nerve sources, the next place to look might be cadaveric, allograft tissue. 30,37,38 Such a strategy was explored in a case series published by Mackinnon et al 30 One of their 10 patients did have sciatic nerve injury, and in that case authors were able reconstruct the posterior tibial nerve with 230 cm of allograft tissue and restore protective sensation to the foot. 30 Such an extensive amount of tissue would be impossible to obtain from autograft sources.…”

Bioactive Nanomaterials for Neural Engineering

“…However, other alternatives are considered in cases of nerve segmental loss with a consequent gap longer than 2 cm because of the tension that emerges when two ends are sutured to each other (Johnson et al 2005 ). Nerve grafting or nerve conduits are standard procedure in cases like these (Siemionow and Brzezicki 2009 ;Pabari et al 2010 ). During autograft nerve transplants, a nerve segment is transplanted from another region of the same patient.…”