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Questions posted in the
Neurology and Neurosurgery Forum have been answered by doctors from The Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
Question Title: Regenerating Severed NervesForum: Neurology Forum
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My friend had an accident...cut her wrist while cleaning a heavy glass bowl. Her hand was surgically reconnected but she lost movement in some fingers. We saw something on the tv about "growing" new nerves for replacement...who & where is this being done? So far the Dr.s have sail she has to trade...moving some nerves from the hand that is good. Help! Thanks for your time.
= I am not sure what you saw on TV but there is no evidence in the scientific literature that any therapy is available to grow new nerve sin this situation. Much research is ongoing on the subjest of nerve regeneration but it is certainly not at the level of artificially growing nerves which have been damaged by trauma. A certain amount of nerve regeneration occurrs naturally for a limited amount of time, but the extent depends on the type and extent of the origional injury, efforts are underway to find growth factors which will encourage this process but nothing has reached the level suggested by your message. Frequently there are media reports of new ideas but unfortunately the ideas are frequently a long way from the stage where they are available outside of the experimental situation and frequently never make it to practical application. I have seen no reports, despite a five year literature search on the application of this sort of techinique in nerves damaged so severely by trauma, if this has not been published in a scientifiv cjournal yet we have no access to the information. If you want to follow this up the best way might be to write to the TV station asking them where they got their informstion, I regret to say that the report sounds a little premature.
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