BACKGROUND: Brachial plexus root avulsion is the severest type in brachial plexus injuries. It is preganglionic lesion and its prognosis is very bad. At present, the curative effect of traditional neurotization is not satisfactory. Therefore it is necessary to explore the treatment of brachial plexus root avulsion by tissue-engineered neural transplantation. OBJECTIVE: To explore the role and effect of tissue engineering in nerve injury, so as to provide reference for the clinical treatment of brachial plexus root avulsion using tissue engineered neural transplantation. RETRIEVAL STRATEGY: The relevant articles published between January 2001 and October 2007 were retrieved from PubMed and China Journal Full-text Database using the key English words "brachial plexus avulsion" and Chinese words "brachial plexus injury". 410 literatures were retrieved, including 155 English, and 255 Chinese. Focused articles and literatures in the same field published in the near future or on the authoritative journals were included. Repetitive articles and Meta analysis articles were excluded. Finally 34 articles were selected. LITERATURE EVALUATION: Of 34 articles, one was review article, and the others were clinical and experimental studies. DATA SYNTHESIS: Curative effects of traditional nerve transposition and avulsed never reimplantation are limited. Neurotrophic factor, sialidase, chondroitinase ABC, and N-acetyl cysteine are able to protect and promote injured neuron. Bone marrow stem cells and spinal nerve stem cells can differentiate into neuron at lesion site of spinal cord after transplantation. CONCLUSION: Tissue engineered neural transplantation may be a more effective therapy for brachial plexus root avulsion.