Neural Regeneration Research (Jan 2015)

Nerve autografts and tissue-engineered materials for the repair of peripheral nerve injuries: a 5-year bibliometric analysis

  • Yuan Gao,
  • Yu-ling Wang,
  • Dan Kong,
  • Bo Qu,
  • Xiao-jing Su,
  • Huan Li,
  • Hong-ying Pi

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4103/1673-5374.158369
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 6
pp. 1003 – 1008

Abstract

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With advances in biomedical methods, tissue-engineered materials have developed rapidly as an alternative to nerve autografts for the repair of peripheral nerve injuries. However, the materials selected for use in the repair of peripheral nerve injuries, in particular multiple injuries and large-gap defects, must be chosen carefully. Various methods and materials for protecting the healthy tissue and repairing peripheral nerve injuries have been described, and each method or material has advantages and disadvantages. Recently, a large amount of research has been focused on tissue-engineered materials for the repair of peripheral nerve injuries. Using the keywords "pe-ripheral nerve injury", "autotransplant", "nerve graft", and "biomaterial", we retrieved publications using tissue-engineered materials for the repair of peripheral nerve injuries appearing in the Web of Science from 2010 to 2014. The country with the most total publications was the USA. The institutions that were the most productive in this field include Hannover Medical School (Germany), Washington University (USA), and Nantong University (China). The total number of publications using tissue-engineered materials for the repair of peripheral nerve injuries grad-ually increased over time, as did the number of Chinese publications, suggesting that China has made many scientific contributions to this field of research.

Keywords