Nerve Implants

Abstract

Synthetic materials have been used in the medical field for surgical grafts due to lack of insufficient organic graft prosthesis. In the first years of their development, properties of an ideal graft were defined. "An ideal graft must be durable on implantation, must be produced at the required dimension, must be biocompatible, must be inert, must be nontoxic and non-allergic." It must also be elastic, comfortable, biostable and biomechanic. In this study nonresorbable and resorb able artificial nerve grafts are being searched as implantable textile materials based on various biomaterial in nerve tissue defects which occur in peripheral neurons in hands and arms and spinal cord neurons in the central nervous system. Evaluation of nerve implants are also being carried out according to their implantable biomaterial properties in medical textiles including electrophysiological studies and nerve regeneration of implants in nervous systems. © 2006 Woodhead Publishing Limited All rights reserved.