This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Brachial plexus lesion is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
 |
This article or section has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page.
|
 |
To meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup because it is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (July 2008) |
|
|
The introduction of this article is too short. To comply with Wikipedia's lead section guidelines, it should be expanded to summarize the article. This article has been tagged since July 2008. |
| Brachial plexus lesion Classification and external resources |
|
| ICD-10 | G54.0, P14.3, S14.3 |
|---|---|
| ICD-9 | 353.0, 767.6, 953.4 |
| DiseasesDB | 31267 |
| MeSH | D020516 |
Brachial plexus lesions are classified as either traumatic or obstetric.
Contents |
Causes
These typically result from excessive stretching and avulsion injury. Traumatic injuries are often caused by high-velocity motor vehicle accidents, especially in motorcyclists. Injury from a direct blow to the lateral side of the scapula is also possible.
Most commonly, forceps delivery or falling on the neck at an angle causes upper plexus lesions leading to Erb's Palsy. This type of injury produces a very characteristic sign called Waiter's tip deformity due to loss of the lateral rotators of the shoulder, arm flexors, and hand extensor muscles.
Much less frequently, sudden upward pulling on an abducted arm (as when someone breaks a fall by grasping a tree branch) produces a lower plexus injury. This results in the sign known as clawed hand due to loss of function of the ulnar nerve and the intrinsic muscles of the hand it supplies.
Signs
The cardinal signs of brachial plexus avulsion are:
Presentation
In most cases the nerve roots are stretched or torn from their origin, since the meningeal coverings of the nerve roots are thinner than the sheaths enclosing the peripheral nerves. The epineurium of the peripheral nerve is contiguous with the dural mater, providing extra support to the peripheral nerves. In cases where the nerve roots have been torn, recovery is unlikely without invasive experimental surgical techniques.citation needed.
Diagnosis
The diagnosis may be confirmed by an EMG examination in 5 to 7 days. The evidence of denervation will be evident. If there is no nerve conduction 72 hours after the injury, then avulsion is most likely.
See also
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 20 August 2008, at 16:21.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Brachial plexus lesion".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.