Promoting Peripheral Axon Regeneration across Nerve Gaps Post Trauma

Following peripheral nerve trauma, no technique induces axons to regenerate across a long nerve gaps and restore neurological function. The standard clinical “gold standard” technique for bridging nerve gaps is a graft of pure sensory nerve. However, sensory nerve grafts have many limitations because they only induce good axon regeneration across gaps <2 cm in length, for the nerves repaired <2-3 months post nerve trauma, or for patients <25 y/o. Although many different materials have been tested for their ability in induce axons to regenerate across nerve gaps, none is more effective than sensory nerve grafts. We clinically tested three novel techniques that induce axon regeneration across gaps up to 16 cm in length, for repairs performed >3 years post trauma, and for patients up to 58 years of age. This short review exams some of the techniques tested for their ability to induce axon regeneration and concludes with a brief discussion of the three novel nerve repair techniques.