Nerve guidance conduit  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search  A nerve guidance conduit (also
referred to as an artificial nerve conduit or artificial nerve
graft, as opposed to an autograft) is an artificial means of
guiding axonal regrowth to facilitate nerve regeneration and is
one of several clinical treatments for nerve injuries. When
direct suturing of the two stumps of a severed nerve cannot be
accomplished without tension, the standard clinical treatment
for peripheral nerve injuries is autologous nerve grafting. Due
to the limited availability of donor tissue and functional
recovery in autologous nerve grafting, neural tissue engineering
research has focused on the development of bioartificial nerve
guidance conduits as an alternative treatment, especially for
large defects. Similar techniques are also being explored for
nerve repair in the spinal cord but nerve regeneration in the
central nervous system poses a greater challenge because its
axons do not regenerate appreci