Studies on nerve fibres within the phrenic nerve and in the diaphragmatic plexus were carried out in one species, the gerbil, a small desert rodent. The resistance of this small mammal to surgical insult enabled experimental intrathoracic transection of the phrenic nerve to be carried out so that the results in 10 animals could be observed within the diaphragmatic plexus, the phrenic nerve, and...

We used evoked spinal cord potentials (ESCP) for intraoperative diagnosis in 17 cases of traumatic brachial plexus palsy. Forty spinal nerves were directly stimulated during exploration of the brachial plexus and ESCP recorded from the cervical epidural space were compared with simultaneously observed somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP) and myelographic findings. Both SEP and ESCP could be ev...

BACKGROUND This study investigated the cost-effectiveness of ultrasonographic-guided interscalene brachial plexus blockade (ISB) in comparison with general anaesthesia (GA) for arthroscopic shoulder surgery. METHODS Forty patients undergoing arthroscopic shoulder surgery received either an ultrasonographic-guided ISB or GA. ISB was performed outside the operation room (OR) and patients were t...

Study Design Technical report. Objective To provide a technical description of the transfer of the brachialis to the anterior interosseous nerve (AIN) for the treatment of tetraplegia after a cervical spinal cord injury (SCI). Methods In this technical report, the authors present a case illustration of an ideal surgical candidate for a brachialis-to-AIN transfer: a 21-year-old patient with a co...

A three-year-old neutered male toy fox terrier presented for a Chiari-like malformation. No neurological deficits were found on examination, although diffuse cervical, thoracolumbar and head pain were present. A mass within the fourth ventricle was apparent on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain. The lesion was hyperintense to brain parenchyma on T2-weighted images, hypointense on T1-...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the factors influencing the results of ulnar nerve neurotization at the motor branch of the brachii biceps muscle, aiming at the restoration of elbow flexion in patients with brachial plexus injury. METHODS 19 patients, with 18 men and 1 woman, mean age 28.7 years. Eight patients had injury to roots C5-C6 and 11, to roots C5-C6-C7. The average time interval between injur...

BACKGROUND The superiority of a single stage combined anterior (first) posterior (second) approach and end-to-side side-to-side grafting neurorrhaphy in direct cord implantation was investigated as to providing adequate exposure to both the cervical cord and the brachial plexus, as to causing less tissue damage and as to being more extensible than current surgical approaches. METHODS The fron...

BACKGROUND Nowadays, increasingly more preemptive analgesia studies focus on postoperative pain; however, the impact of preemptive analgesia on perioperative opioid requirement is not well defined. This study was carried out in order to evaluate whether preoperative intravenous flurbiprofen axetil can reduce perioperative opioid consumption and provide postoperative analgesia in patients underg...