The use of fibrin glue in repair of peripheral nerves

Gluing of nerves with histocompatible and resorbable materials offers a distinct advantage on suturing alone because results in clinical surgery are similar and often better. This method, when applied properly, allows a considerable gain of operative time, which we estimate to be 3-fold (ie, instead of taking 1 hour for grafting one nerve trunk, it takes 20 minutes). It does not represent a breakthrough in peripheral nerve surgery because it does not guarantee that each nerve fiber will be aligned with its own stump. Gross evaluation shows that the percentage of good results is increased by approximately 15 per cent. It must be stressed, however, that a portion of this improvement, difficult to evaluate, may be caused not by the method but by the experience we have gained over the years practicing nerve repair. The commercial fibrin glue is not yet released in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration; however, it seems, at the time of this writing, that this will be done by the first months of 1988.