OBJECTIVE: Large muscular or musculotendinous defects present a dilemma because of the inadequacies of current treatment strategies. Extracellular matrices (ECM) are potential clinically applicable regenerative biomaterials. This review summarizes information from the preclinical literature evaluating the use of ECM for muscle regeneration in animal models of volumetric muscle loss (VML).
STUDY DESIGN: Literature review.
SAMPLE POPULATION: Animal models of VML in which surgical repair was performed with an ECM product, with or without added cell populations.