title: Nerve autografts and tissue-engineered materials for the repair of peripheral nerve injuries: a 5-year bibliometric analysis.
abstract: With advances in biomedical methods, tissue-engineered materials have developed rapidly as an alternative to nerve autografts for the repair of peripheral nerve injuries. However, the materials selected for use in the repair of peripheral nerve injuries, in particular multiple injuries and large-gap defects, must be chosen carefully. Various methods and materials for protecting the healthy tissue and repairing peripheral nerve injuries have been described, and each method or material has advantages and disadvantages. Recently, a large amount of research has been focused on tissue-engineered materials for the repair of peripheral nerve injuries. Using the keywords "pe-ripheral nerve injury", "autotransplant", "nerve graft", and "biomaterial", we retrieved publications using tissue-engineered materials for the repair of peripheral nerve injuries appearing in the Web of Science from 2010 to 2014. The country with the most total publications was the USA. The institutions that were the most productive in this field include Hannover Medical School (Germany), Washington University (USA), and Nantong University (China). The total number of publications using tissue-engineered materials for the repair of peripheral nerve injuries grad-ually increased over time, as did the number of Chinese publications, suggesting that China has made many scientific contributions to this field of research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yu-Ling
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.affiliation: Clinic Division, Department of Surgery, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Qu
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Jing
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Huan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Hong-Ying
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Pi
keywords: biomaterial; nerve autograft; nerve regeneration; nerve transplantation; neural regeneration; peripheral nerve; tissue engineering