Chitosan conduits for peripheral nerve repair: a systematic review of animal studies

Peripheral nerve injuries are major causes of disability worldwide. The current standard treatment, autologous nerve grafting, puts the donor region at risk and has limited availability. A systematic search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Web of Science databases for studies published between January 1, 2008, and September 04, 2024, was performed to compare interventions using chitosan tubes with non-intervention or autologous nerve grafts in rats with artificially injured sciatic nerves. Twenty-one experimental studies including 738 animals were selected. Nerve repair using chitosan conduits resulted in a higher sciatic functional index compared to non-intervention. Higher conduction velocity and a greater number of myelinated fibers were observed in nerve fibers treated with chitosan compared to the no intervention or primary repair groups. However, compound muscle action potentials and somatosensory evoked potentials were superior in the latter compared to nerves treated with the polymer.