Annals of plastic surgery
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Annals of plastic surgery · Apr 2008
ReviewUS Food and Drug Administration /Conformit Europe- approved absorbable nerve conduits for clinical repair of peripheral and cranial nerves.
Several absorbable nerve conduits are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Conformit Europe (CE) for clinical repair of peripheral and cranial nerves. Surgeons are often not aware of the different(bio) materials of these conduits when performing nerve repair. An overview of these FDA- and CE-approved absorbable nerve conduits for clinical use is presented. ⋯ The available clinical data, the price, the length, and the composition of the tube show significant differences. Based on the available data in this paper at this moment, we favor the PGA (Neurotube) nerve conduit for repair of peripheral and cranial nerve defects because of its advantages in length, price, and availability of clinical data. However, no prospective studies comparing the available nerve conduits have been published.