Treatment of radiation-induced brachial plexopathy with omentoplasty.

Radiation-induced brachial plexus neuropathy (RIBPN) is a rare and delayed non-traumatic injury to the brachial plexus, which occurs following radiation therapy to the chest wall, neck, and/or axilla in previously treated patients with cancer. The incidence of RIBPN is more common in patients treated for carcinoma of the breast and Hodgkin lymphoma. With the improvement in radiation techniques, the incidence of injury to the brachial plexus following radiotherapy has dramatically reduced.

Distal nerve transfer versus supraclavicular nerve grafting: comparison of elbow flexion outcome in neonatal brachial plexus palsy with C5-C7 involvement.

Purpose: Ulnar and median nerve transfers to arm muscles have been used to recover elbow flexion in infants with neonatal brachial plexus palsy, but there is no direct outcome comparison with the classical supraclavicular nerve grafting approach.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed patients with C5-C7 neonatal brachial plexus palsy submitted to nerve surgery and recorded elbow flexion recovery using the active movement scale (0-7) at 12 and 24 months after surgery. We compared 13 patients submitted to supraclavicular nerve grafting with 21 patients submitted to distal ulnar or median nerve transfer to biceps motor branch.

Prognostic value of thumb pain sensation in birth brachial plexopathy.

Objective: To evaluate the prognostic value of absent thumb pain sensation in newborns and young infants with birth brachial plexopathy.

Methods: We evaluated 131 patients with birth brachial plexopathy with less than two months of age. Pain sensation was evoked by thumb nail bed compression to evaluate sensory fibers of the upper trunk (C6).

Management of desmoid-type fibromatosis involving peripheral nerves.

Desmoid-type fibromatosis is an uncommon and aggressive neoplasia, associated with a high rate of recurrence. It is characterized by an infiltrative but benign fibroblastic proliferation occurring within the deep soft tissues. There is no consensus about the treatment of those tumors.

Fascicular topography of the suprascapular nerve in the C5 root and upper trunk of the brachial plexus: a microanatomic study from a nerve surgeon's perspective.

Background: In patients with supraclavicular injuries of the brachial plexus, the suprascapular nerve (SSN) is frequently reconstructed with a sural nerve graft coapted to C5. As the C5 cross-sectional diameter exceeds the graft diameter, inadequate positioning of the graft is possible.

Objective: To identify a specific area within the C5 proximal stump that contains the SSN axons and to determine how this area could be localized by the nerve surgeon, we conducted a microanatomic study of the intraplexal topography of the SSN.