Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Inflammation, trauma, tumor or other lesions result in extensive damage to the trachea, which need to cut a long tracheal segment and reconstructed. It is hard to repair defects if the removal of the trachea was exceeding half length of the total trachea. Tracheal prosthesis is needed to reconstruct tracheal continuity.
OBJECTIVE: To review the basis and clinical applications of tracheal prosthesis, introduce the type and method of tracheal reconstruction and re-epithelialization, and to analyze the problems exists in current re-epithelialization in the reconstructed trachea.
METHODS: A computer-based online search of PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed) and CNKI (www.cnki.net/index.htm) was performed by the first author using key words of “tracheal defect reconstruction, tracheal epithelialization, re-epithelialization”. Articles with following features were included: ①With original and reliable evidence. ②With clear viewpoint and comprehensive analysis. ③Closely connected with this subject. 
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Totally 30 articles were included in this analysis. The rapid development of biomaterials science and biomedical science provide necessary substitute material for tissue and organ reconstruction. Artificial trachea made of biomedical have structural integrity and scalability, making it have an important condition for the replacement of the trachea, and showing excellent biocompatibility and stability of structural properties. Many scholars have made encouraging progress in tracheal reconstruction, but there are still many problems: If the use of allograft tissue replacement, it is difficult to avoid immune rejection; own body transplantation, they have to expense the cost of normal tissue. Construction of tissue-engineered trachea is still just stop at the level of nude mice. The puzzles of reconstructed tracheal re-epithelialization restrict the development of artificial trachea.