105 ISSN 1479-6708 10.2217/FNL.14.2 © 2014 Future Medicine Ltd Future Neurol. (2014) 9(2), 105–107 Traumatic injury of the PNS represents a major cause of morbidity and disability, which subsequently causes a substantial economic and social burden in a global perspective. In previous studies, peripheral nerve injuries have been estimated to affect 2.8% of all trauma patients, many of whom acquire life-long disability, resulting in an incidence of between 13 and 23 per 100,000 individuals a year (in developed countries) [1]. Although axons in the PNS harbor the potential of axonal regeneration, recovery of severe peripheral nerve injury is often unsatisfactory. This undesirable outcome is believed to be related to the process of axonal attrition and misdirection following nerve injury with anatomical disruption of the nerve tissue [2]. In recent years, many research advancements and understanding of the process involved in peripheral nerve regeneration allowed for the development of novel therapies that significantly improve patient’s outcome. The treatment of traumatic transection of peripheral nerves primarily consists of surgical intervention and anastomosis, either in the acute phase or during the chronic phase [3,4] . The gold standard autograft repair of the damaged peripheral nerve is far from being optimal and often disappointing [5]. An alternative to the use of grafts is the interposition of an artificial nerve scaffold [6–8]. Most repair scaffolds consist of a hollow tube made of polymeric materials (e.g., silicone), biologic materials (e.g., collagen), chitosan or biodegradable polymers [5–10]. The use of nerve guidance channels, sutured in between the proximal and distal nerve stumps, has been actively pursued in order to obtain better regenerative results and obviate the need for the additional surgical intervention. Since fewer epineural sutures are required for entubulation repair (since the nerve stumps are placed into the ends of the tube as opposed to simply abutting against the autograft), it is expected to cause less surgical trauma and diminish the potential of neuroma formation due to fibrosis. Moreover, guidance channels (or tubes) assist in directing axons from the proximal to the distal stump without interference from imperfectly aligned degenerating fascicles of the nerve graft or