These startups are getting on our nerves

Put that avocado down.

Summer is the season of avocado hand, when roughly one in 50 knife injuries occur while slicing that delicious green fruit. Hand surgeons kindly ask that you safely cut avocados on a cutting board, rather than wind up in the ER with severed nerves and tendons.

But if you happen to be an unlucky avocado victim — or one of ~500k Americans who suffer nerve injuries annually — startups are working to improve your chances of regaining feeling after an accident.

When peripheral nerves are severed, the two ends need to be held in place to allow the nerve to heal itself.

• Around ~90% of nerve repair procedures rely on micro-sutures.
• But sutures can introduce tension, trigger inflammation and scarring, or limit the quality of regeneration.
• Only a 50-70% success rate for micro-sutures.
• Failure to heal properly can lead to numbness, tingling, pain, and loss of feeling.

Patch me up, doc

To improve outcomes and repair nerves in a more consistent, less traumatic way, French biotech startup Tissium developed a biodegradable liquid that attaches to tissue when exposed to light, per Wired.

• A biopolymer, made of fatty acid and glycerol, holds the nerve in place as it heals, before biodegrading.
  
• In one trial, 12/12 patients regained the ability to feel temperature, pain, texture, and light touch.
  
• Tissium raised $68m to expand commercialization and develop other applications, including hernia treatment and cardiovascular reconstruction.

Who else?

Other startups are also addressing nerve repair and pain in innovative ways, helping to propel the ~$9B market to an estimated $25B+ by 2032.

• Orthocell's Remplir is a collagen-based nerve wrap that mimics epineurium — the nerve's outer layer — for controlled healing without sutures. (It's currently used by soldiers in Ukraine.)
• Renerva's nerve cap aims to reduce chronic pain for amputees.
• Neuraptive Therapeutics’ NTX-001 kit fuses nerves together with a special solution that accelerates recovery and reduces pain.
• Epineuron's PeriPulse system uses bioelectronic therapy to stimulate nerve regeneration and healing.
• Researchers invented Nerve Tape, a device with microscopic hooks that creates a tube around nerve ends for more precise alignment and improved recovery.
• Myriagon developed a treatment for nerve pain caused by chemotherapy.
• Axogen's Avance Nerve Graft uses donor nerve tissue, rather than the patient's, reducing complications and speeding up recovery.

So, while there are plenty of promising nerve repair treatments out there, we still hope you avoid avocado hand this summer.