Fiber, Textile, and Weaving Arts Commons^™

Design Of Barrier Coatings On Kink-Resistant Peripheral Nerve Conduits., Basak Acan Clements, Jared Bushman, N. Sanjeeva Murthy, Mindy Ezra, Christopher M. Pastore, Joachim Kohn

Kanbar College Faculty Papers

Here, we report on the design of braided peripheral nerve conduits with barrier coatings. Braiding of extruded polymer fibers generates nerve conduits with excellent mechanical properties, high flexibility, and significant kink-resistance. However, braiding also results in variable levels of porosity in the conduit wall, which can lead to the infiltration of fibrous tissue into the interior of the conduit. This problem can be controlled by the application of secondary barrier coatings. Using a critical size defect in a rat sciatic nerve model, the importance of controlling the porosity of the nerve conduit walls was explored. Braided conduits without barrier coatings …