Techniques of peripheral nerves repair: Evolution of the literature from 1950 to 2010

The life expectancy of technological innovations is estimated at 50 years. In medicine, these cycles were poorly studied. The purpose of this work was to study the time-evolution of publications concerning the techniques of repair of the peripheral nerves (TRPN). We listed the publications concerning TRPN since their appearance in the medical literature until nowadays, then studied their evolution in the time. We looked in "Medline (R)" for the publications on TRPN between 1950 and 2010. The direct techniques were published 156 times. The sutures and the biological glue appear in 1966 and the laser in 1979. The indirect techniques were published 199 times. The nerve guides appear in 1956, the vein grafts in 1965, the nerve grafts in 1977. In the decade 2000-2010, the literature produced as many publications on TRPN (181) as in the half-century from 1950 to 2000 (174). Conversely, the global medical literature produced twice as few publications in the decade 2000-2010 (7 000 000) than in the half-century 1950-2000 (13 000 000). Several hypotheses can be evoked: encouragement of scientific publication, the development of functional surgery, the augmentation of microsurgery education. (C) 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.