The Surgical Treatment of Total Brachial Plexus Avulsion Injury-A Retrospective Study of 73 Patients

Brachial plexus avulsion injury (BPAI) caused by traction injury, especially total root avulsion, represents a severe handicap for the patient. Despite recent progress in diagnosis and microsurgical repair, the prognosis in such cases remains unfavorable. Nerve transfer is the most successful method for repairing cases of brachial plexus root avulsion. Phrenic nerve transfer, accessory nerve transfer, intercostal nerve transfer and contralateral C7 transfer are all well-established technique in the treatment of certain severe brachial plexus lesions in adults. As reported in previous articles, shoulder function, elbow flexion, elbow extension, and wrist and finger function have been restored successfully by spinal accessory, phrenic, intercostal, and contralateral C7 nerve transfers . However, the results of just one function reconstruction were evaluated in those articles. Few studies were found that focused on the whole function reconstructions of the affected limb. In different medical organizations even in our department, many different surgical strategies were used in treating total BPAI patients and the results differed significantly. Here, we investigated the results of different commonly used nerve transfer in order to determine a relatively optimal surgical strategy for treatment of total BPAI patients.

Inclusion criteria

• global root avulsion brachial plexus injury, a minimum postoperative interval of 3 years, all operations performed by the same medical team, nerve transfer was the only reconstruction method.

Exclusion criteria

• diabetes, Volkmann contracture, fracture on the affected limb, rib fracture, brain trauma.