Current Thoracic Surgery

Management of large airway defects is challenging for clinicians due to lack of effective treatment modalities and eventually interest has turned to the field of airway tissue engineering. Considerable progress has been made within the field of airway tissue engineering in recent years and herein we review these recent advances within this field as applied to regeneration and/or replacement of the trachea. Although there are many encouraging researches, we are still far from any routine clinical application of tissue engineered tracheal grafts and it is essential to perform further experimental and clinical researches in order to improve current results and to broaden the clinical application of airway tissue engineering.