Will Your Child's Brachial Plexus Injury Benefit from Surgery?
Not necessarily — a recent review of medical literature suggests that some infants born with an obstetrical brachial plexus injury (OBPI) fall in a “gray zone,” where it’s not clear whether surgery is beneficial. According to the researchers, approximately half of children they evaluated who fell within this gray zone fully recovered without surgery.
The study authors developed guidelines for surgical intervention for children in the so-called gray zone. “The guideline presented in this paper provides another framework for decision-making that includes other areas in addition to biceps recovery or elbow function,” the researchers concluded.
In particular, the guidelines take into consideration shoulder abduction and wrist extension scores based on the Active Movement Scale.
The study is published in the current issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics and was conducted researchers at the McMaster Children’s Hospital in Ontario, Canada.
