Biological and artificial nerve conduit for repairing peripheral nerve defect

OBJECTIVE: Recently, with the development of biological and artificial materials, the experimental and clinical studies on application of this new material-type nerve conduit for treatment of peripheral nerve defect have become the hotspot topics for professorial physicians. DATA SOURCES: Using the terms "nerve conduits, peripheral nerve, nerve regeneration and nerve transplantation" in English, we searched Pubmed database, which was published during January 2000 to June 2006, for the literatures related to repairing peripheral nerve defect with various materials. At the same time, we also searched Chinese Technical Scientific Periodical Database at the same time period by inputting " peripheral nerve defect, nerve repair, nerve regeneration and nerve graft" in Chinese. STUDY SELECTION: The materials were firstly selected, and literatures about study on various materials for repairing peripheral nerve defect and their full texts were also searched. Inclusive criteria: nerve conduits related animal experiments and clinical studies. Exclusive criteria: review or repetitive studies. DATA EXTRACTION: Seventy-nine relevant literatures were collected and 30 of them met inclusive criteria and were cited. DATA SYNTHESIS: Peripheral nerve defect, a commonly seen problem in clinic, is difficult to be solved. Autogenous nerve grafting is still the gold standard for repairing peripheral nerve defect, but because of its application limitation and possible complications, people studied nerve conduits to repair nerve defect. Nerve conduits consist of biological and artificial materials. CONCLUSION: There have been numerous reports about animal experimental and clinical studies of various nerve conduits, but nerve conduit, which is more ideal than autogenous nerve grafting, needs further clinical observation and investigation.