Brachial plexus injuries are devastating and usually result from high-energy trauma in young patients. Clinicians treating brachial plexus injuries need to recognize the pattern of injury presenting in each patient. Most injuries can be described as either supraclavicular or infraclavicular. The specific injury is determined by means ofa precise workup, including careful physical examination, e...

Brachial plexus avulsion injury is one of the major complications after traffic, especially motorcycle accidents and machine injuries. Intractable pain and paralysis of the affected limbs are the major neurological deficits. During the past 18 years, we have encountered and treated more than 500 cases with brachial plexus avulsion injuries. Dorsal root entry zone lesions (DREZ) made by thermoco...

Imaging of the brachial plexus in infants and young children with birth-related brachial palsy may become more frequent in view of recent renewed interest in the surgical repair of these injuries [1). The usefulness of MR for imaging the brachial plexus has been described recently [2, 3). MR may provide an alternative, noninvasive means of studying patients with obstetric palsy. To our knowledg...

Introduction The majority of birth injuries are minor and often unreported. Occasionally, though, birth injuries may be so severe as to be fatal or leave the child with a permanent disability. They may occur because of inappropriate or deficient medical skills or attention, but they also can occur despite skilled and competent obstetrical care. Birth injuries are mostly iatrogenic, and the lega...

Adult traumatic brachial plexus injuries are devastating, and they are occurring with increasing frequency. Patient evaluation consists of a focused assessment of upper extremity sensory and motor function, radiologic studies, and, most important, preoperative and intraoperative electrodiagnostic studies. The critical concepts in surgical treatment are patient selection as well as the timing an...

Most brachial plexus lesions are traction injuries sustained during birth, but in adolescents and older people they are usually caused by traffic accidents or following a fall in the home. A minority are the result of penetrating injury after civilian assault or trauma encountered during wartime. Birth palsy cases (obstetric brachial plexus palsy) and the remaining cases (traumatic briachial pl...

INTRODUCTION Several recent studies demonstrate that upper extremities kinematics analysis is in increasing use to assist clinical practice. We describe an upper limb kinematics analysis protocol that was first applied to a group of healthy children (to obtain normative data), and subsequently, to a child presenting with obstetrical brachial plexus palsy (OBPP) before and after surgical treatme...