Brachial Plexus Injuries/Stereotactic Procedures

Brachial Plexus Injury Symptoms

Symptoms of the brachial plexus injury depend on the seriousness of the injury. A minor injury can often occur during any contact sport and minor trauma when the brachial plexus nerves get stretched or compressed. Minor brachial plexus injury symptoms include the following:

• Burning sensation and shocks shooting down your arm
• Weakness and numbness in your arm

More serious brachial plexus injury symptoms result when nerves are torn or ruptured. Such injuries may produce the following symptoms:

• Weakness or inability to use certain muscles of hand, arm or shoulder
• Complete lack of movement and feelings (paralysis) in your arm, including your shoulder and hand
• Severe pain

In case of childbirth brachial plexus injury, symptoms can be seen right after the birth of the child. These may include:

• No movement in the upper or lower arm or hand of the baby
• Arm flexed (bent) at the elbow and held against the body
• Absence of Moro reflex on the affected side
• Decreased grip on the affected side

Some common types of surgical brachial plexus injury treatment include the following:

• Nerve grafting: Surgically removing and replacing the damaged part of the brachial plexus with sections of nerves harvested from other parts of the body is called nerve grafting.
• Nerve transfer: This type of surgery is opted when the nerve root has been torn from the spinal cord. A surgeon often takes a less important nerve that is still attached to the spinal cord and connects it to the nerve that is ripped off from the spinal cord. Occasionally, a combination of nerve graft and nerve transfer is performed.
• Muscle transfer: During this surgery, your surgeon removes a less important muscle or ligament from another part of your body and transfers it to your arm, and restores the nerves and blood vessels supplying that muscle.

It is very hard to assess an exact recovery time after brachial plexus injury treatment due to the broad spectrum. How likely a spontaneous recovery depends on the type and severity of the injury.

In the case of surgery, nerve tissue grows very slowly, about an inch a month, so it can take a few years to assess the success of brachial plexus injury surgery. However, during the recovery period, patients are encouraged to keep their joints flexible by following an exercise schedule. The success rate of surgery is quite good but recovery time and success rate must be assessed on an individual basis.