There are roughly 1.5 million for Peripheral nerve injuries (PNI) worldwide every year, resulting in loss of function and significant morbidity. 85% of these injuries affect upper limb function, and less than 60% of patients return to work within a year. That represents a significant loss in personal income and quality of life for many people. And with an average patient age of 38 years, peripheral nerve injuries can equal a lifelong disability.
In addition to being expensive and having limited effectiveness at repairing large gaps, the currently available solutions have many other drawbacks including long surgery times, Donor nerve morbidity and Donor tissue availability.
Peripheral nerve injuries (PNI) caused by trauma can be the result of cutting, compressing, or stretching the nerves, or from prior surgeries. Such injuries can impact the brain’s communication with muscles and organs, meaning damaged nerve symptoms include loss of sensation, loss of motor function, or both.
Autograft is the current gold standard for PNI treatment globally, yet it requires lengthy surgeries and demands sacrificial nerves from elsewhere on the patient’s body. Furthermore, transplanted nerves face high morbidity risks, with 27% suffering long-term complications with healing or infection, or chronic pain from a neuroma.
The only off-the-shelf biologic currently available for nerve repair is a processed acellular human cadaver nerve allograft.
Allograft repairs have drawbacks similar to autografts, but also face potential issues with donor tissue availability, transplant rejection, expensive storage and delivery costs, and the challenges associated with immunosuppression.
There are currently several devices on the market in Europe and the United States approved for use in repairing peripheral nerves.
Many of these devices are hollow or matrix-filled tubes that can be cut to the desired length. They are made of various materials, including chitosan, type I collagen, and polyglycolic acid, and most are intended to be resorbed into the body.
The benefits of using nerve conduits over autografts and allografts are many, including no second injury, no donor tissue availability issues, and no immunosuppression concerns.
However, these devices are for cases when there is no gap in the damaged nerve or, when a gap does exist, the ends can be brought together to eliminate the gap. In fact, hollow nerve conduits have shown a 34-57% failure rate with gaps 5 mm or larger.
Newrotex is developing products to address the shortcomings in the nerve repair methods mentioned above. Our silk-based solutions promote guided nerve growth through 2 products: Newrotex luminal silk fibres and Newrotex silk tubes.
Read Our Solution for more details on how Newrotex is addressing these unmet needs in peripheral nerve repair.
