Nerve transfer procedure is recognized as the current gold standard for treating traumatic brachial plexus injury (TBPI). However, despite the current major progress in diagnosis and microsurgical repair, the prognosis in TBPI remains unfavorable due to limited donor nerve and compromised regenerative capability of the nervous system arising from prolonged denervation. Therefore, there is a major need to devise new treatment strategies; and one possible approach is to develop cellular therapies to bioengineer new nerve tissue and/or modulate the endogenous regenerative mechanisms within the injured nerve.~Our previous studies have shown that the peripheral nerve tissue engineering approach using human amniotic membrane seeded with allogeneic adipose-derived MSCs to augment axonal regeneration in nerve transfer of TBPI patient revealed promising functional recovery of the shoulder range of motion (ROM). The investigators plan a non-randomized clinical trial in a single center to investigate the use of a hybrid (composite) between human amniotic membrane (HAM) and allogeneic adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AdMSC) as wrapping in the nerve transfer procedure of upper TBPI patients, with a focus on the augmentation of axonal regeneration
The purpose of this clinical trial is to investigate the utility of composite wrapping comprising human amniotic membrane and allogeneic adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (HAM-AdMSC) for augmentation of nerve transfer procedure in upper TBPI patients