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< Vol. 13 Issue 1 | Jan-Mar 2015 | pp. e1 - e71

Peripheral nerve regeneration inside collagen-based artificial nerve guides in humans

Abstract

Purpose

Nerve gap injuries may be associated with lesions in other structures, like tendons or bones; in these cases, it is common to plan a second surgery to improve functional recovery. Since macroscopic observations of nerve regeneration in humans are rare, we exploited these second surgeries for the purpose of studying nerve regeneration in humans.

 Methods

We assessed the clinical outcomes of 50 implants of collagen-based nerve guides in the upper limb. We performed a second look at 20, assessing macroscopically both nerve regeneration and collagen degradation.

 Results and Conclusions

Pain was never recorded in these patients. An adequate sensory recovery took place whenever nerve regeneration was found inside the guide. Motor recovery seemed to occur only when the gap lesion was shorter than 10 mm. The degree of degradation appeared to be variable and was not directly correlated with time; we hypothesize that it could be associated with the site of implantation. Such a large number of second looks in humans has never been previously reported in the literature.

J Appl Biomater Funct Mater 2015; 13(1): e61 - e65

Article Type: ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

DOI:10.5301/jabfm.5000188

Authors

Antonio Merolli, Lorenzo Rocchi, Xiu-Mei Wang, Fu-Zhai Cui

Article History

  • • Accepted on 07/10/2013
  • • Available online on 15/04/2014
  • • Published online on 18/03/2015

Disclosures

Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from every 
patient. Ethics committee approval was not required for this study.
Financial support: Financial support for this study was provided by the parent institutions. No third parties, either public or private, were involved.
Conflict of interest: The authors have no conflict of interest.
Meeting presentation. This paper was an oral presentation at the symposium on “Biomaterials for Nerve Regeneration” held during the 9th World Biomaterials Congress in Chengdu, China, 3rd June 2013.

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Authors

Affiliations

  • Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, The Catholic University in Rome, Policlinico Gemelli, Rome - Italy
  • Institute for Regenerative Medicine and Biomimetic Materials, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, 
Tsinghua University, Beijing - China

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