Experimental and clinical study on peripheral nerve allografting.

There are numerous factors that affect the success of peripheral nerve grafting. Among these are (1) the type of injury to the nerve; (2) the degree of damage to the sur rounding tissue and its complications; (3) the general condition of the patient; (4) the age of the patient; (5) the size, level and location of the nerve defect; (6) the local nutrition and the amount of scar in and around the nerve; (7) the accuracy of repair and the suture method; (8) the time lapse between injury and grafting; (9) the kind, length and thickness of the graft; (10) sterilization and preservation methods of the graft; (11) the problem of histocompatibility; (12) the method of immunosuppression; and (13) the rehabilitation method. In the authors' clinic, research has been carried out to improve the methods of sterilization and preservation using a Cialit solution and cathode irradiation, the immunosuppressive method using steroid and Imuran, and microsurgical techniques such as sheathing method, full thickness grafting and cable grafting. The results of these experimental studies were applied in some clinical cases. The experimental and clinical data on the peripheral nerve allografting in our clinic have been reported in this paper.