Clinical analysis of 16 patients with brachial plexus injury.

Brachial plexus injury is very rare in neurosurgical practice, so many neurosurgeons have never experienced this problem in Japan. This study describes a clinical analysis of 16 patients aged 5 to 62 years (mean 32.9 years) who presented at our institution with brachial plexus injuries. Nine patients presented with paralysis and seven with paresis. Head injury was the most common associated injury in eight of 16 patients. Six patients were managed conservatively. All patients with C8-T1 paresis spontaneously recovered to a useful level. Surgery was performed in 10 patients: six neurolysis, two neurotization, and three nerve grafting procedures. All six patients who underwent neurolysis of the brachial plexus attained useful recovery. Four of five patients achieved useful recovery after nerve repair. Nerve grafting achieved a better outcome than neurotization in this study. The difference of outcome was attributed to the graft length. The management of brachial plexus injury is a great challenge, but surgical outcome can be improved if the optimal repair procedure is selected for brachial plexus injury.