Brachial Plexus Injury: Signs & Treatment | The Hand Society

Treatment of a brachial plexus injury will be different depending on what nerve is injured, the type of injury, and the severity of the injury. The most important first step in treatment is evaluation by a physician who has experience treating brachial plexus injuries. They can determine the type and severity of the injury and make appropriate recommendations for treatment.Types of treatment for brachial plexus injuries include:

• Observation: If you have a mild brachial plexus injury, your physician may recommend watching and waiting to see if you recover on your own. You will come back for repeated examinations with your physician to make sure your nerves are recovering.
• Therapy: Most patients with a brachial plexus injury will need therapy to recover and help treat pain. While waiting for muscles to recover, therapy can help prevent joints from getting stiff. As your muscles recover, therapy can help strengthen them. Therapists can offer techniques to help nerves recover, such as ultrasound therapy.
• Surgery: In the case of severe brachial plexus injuries, or injuries that do not recover on their own, surgery may be required. The type of surgery will depend on which nerves are injured and which functions have been lost. Very mild brachial plexus injuries can undergo a procedure called a neurolysis, where scar tissue is cleaned up around the nerves helping them function better. Some nerve injuries can be repaired with surgery to put the nerve back together. Other injuries are treated by replacing the function of an injured nerve with another nerve, called a nerve transfer. Some injuries that result in muscle weakness can be treated by moving another muscle to replace the weaker one, called a tendon transfer.

Most patients will need a combination of these treatments for their brachial plexus injury. If surgery is required, more than one surgery may be necessary to improve function as much as possible.

Recovery

Recovery from brachial plexus injury will be different depending on what nerve is injured, the type of injury, the patient’s age, and the severity of the injury. Some brachial plexus injuries are minor and will completely recover in several weeks. Other injuries are severe enough to cause permanent disability in the arm, even with the best possible treatment. In general, younger patients tend to recover faster and more completely than older patients. More severe injuries take longer to recover, and a patient may never return to normal function after a severe brachial plexus injury.Though brachial plexus injuries are complicated to diagnose and treat, timely evaluation by a hand or brachial plexus surgeon can maximize function.

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