An eclectic history of peripheral nerve surgery.

It is hard to decide where history stops and contemporary development of peripheral nerve surgery begins. This article provides an eclectic view of the history of peripheral nerve surgery. In trying to keep the story moving, the publications of many authors have been omitted. For this, we are sorry. We have also stopped short of reporting the contemporary history of molecular biology as applied to peripheral nerve regeneration. The future of peripheral nerve repairs lies in our understanding of the molecular cascades that stimulate axon growth and guide the axon to its proper destination. We hope that this review shows the reader that researchers who got us where we are traveled a road filled with erroneous dogma, bad advice,and misleading data. We believe that the lessons learned from those who brought us back to the right path are applicable to many disciplines.