VATS phrenic nerve harvesting for brachial plexus neurotization: literature review and our experience.

Introduction: Brachial plexus traumatic lesions often lead to severe upper extremity deficits that dramatically compromise quality of life of mostly young patients. Optimal treatment aims to restore elbow flexion transferring various donor nerves. Phrenic nerve (PN) is a powerful source of transferable axons and, despite supraclavicular sectioning being the most used technique, it can be harvested through video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS).