Editorial Note on: Spinal Cord (2010) 48, 633–637; doi:10.1038/sc.2009.195 published online 9 February 2010

This is a very interesting paper from Sun et al.1 Repairing injured nerve roots is a rarely reported topic. In a certain way, it can be compared with the repair of intracranial nerves, with regard to which it has been shown that repair of transacted nerves can be followed by a successful and, for a patient, useful recovery of the function.2

For lumbosacral nerve roots, the incidence of injury and specifically transaction is seldom seen. So far, only a handful of studies have described the functional recovery after such a trauma as demonstrated by Sun et al.1 in this study. Repair of the lumbosacral nerve roots can be worthwhile and some motor recovery can occur. The authors have chosen ‘the right method’ of repair using fibrin glue. This method of repair is the most atraumatic one for the nerve roots, as the glue provides additional stability, alignment and protection of the repaired nerve roots that is necessary for the regeneration process. More of such studies are welcome in order to stress the importance and potential of such a repair.