surgery or not??
surgery or not??
My husband was injured in an explosion at work 6-10-05. Initially he was unable to move his right arm, wrist or fingers. After almost 6 months he can curl his fingers into a fist and move his wrist downwards. He is still unable to curl arm upwards or extend it away from his body. An orthopaedic dr. recommends giving the injury 1-1.5 years to heal before discussing surgery. 2 different neurologists(dr. zager@ univ. of penna and dr. adelson@ univ of pittsburgh) are recommending surgery asap. Has anyone had surgery with either of these 2 dr.'s? Anyone have an opinion on our course of action?
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cbe411
- Posts: 1393
- Joined: Sun Jun 01, 2003 8:27 pm
- Injury Description, Date, extent, surgical intervention etc: MVA in 2001, nerve graph in 2002, Median Nerve Transfer in 2004 and an unsuccessful Gracillis Muscle Transfer in 2006. I am living life and loving it! Feel free to contact me :)
- Location: Grosse Pointe Woods, MI
- Contact:
Re: surgery or not??
DO NOT WAIT! With TBPI they need to get in there asap and see whats going on! I waited as I didnt know any different and I kicked myself for a while wondering WHAT IF... thats not fun! I am not familiar with either of these doctors but someone else might be. I would go with a BPI doctor which those two seem to be. GOod luck and keep asking quesitons!
COurt
COurt
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admin
- Site Admin
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Re: surgery or not??
I live in pittsburgh and have seen Dr. Adelson twice. I'm not traumatic BPI, I'm obstetric, but Dr. Adelson is a children's doc specializing in brachial plexus injuries who also sees adults. I think he is very knowledgable. He's given me more info about my inury than any other doc.
Becky
Becky
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Christopher
- Posts: 845
- Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2003 10:09 pm
- Injury Description, Date, extent, surgical intervention etc: Date of Injury: 12/15/02
Level of Injury:
-dominant side C5, C6, & C7 avulsed. C8 & T1 stretched & crushed
BPI Related Surgeries:
-2 Intercostal nerves grafted to Biceps muscle,
-Free-Gracilis muscle transfer to Biceps Region innervated with 2 Intercostal nerves grafts.
-2 Sural nerves harvested from both Calves for nerve grafting.
-Partial Ulnar nerve grafted to Long Triceps.
-Uninjured C7 Hemi-Contralateral cross-over to Deltoid muscle.
-Wrist flexor tendon transfer to middle, ring, & pinky finger extensors.
Surgical medical facility:
Brachial Plexus Clinic at The Mayo Clinic, Rochester MN
(all surgeries successful)
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
~Theodore Roosevelt - Location: Los Angeles, California USA
Re: surgery or not??
My hand function returned at about that exact same rate. It's been almost three years, and it's not a great hand, but I use it and wouldn't be unless I had surgery. Your husband should be meeting with the best available surgeon PRONTO! I went the the mayo Clinic in MN and they were the best I could find, and I went everywhere! I had surgery exactly 4 months after injury to try and save my biceps and deltoid. They both work pretty well now considering they should be paralyzed. I had a surgery that my sister and I invented to try and save my triceps at 9 months after injury, and it barely works. I truly feel the difference in muscle return was due to the difference in time between the two surgeries. So, if your husband wants to make the return of use of his hand functional then he's going to need to get his biceps working. He can get a muscle transfer from his thigh to assist his biceps w/elbow flexion, and that surgery has no time limit on when you have to have it done by. My hand was like an island, all by itself away from the rest of my body's ability to do anything with it, until I started reaping the benefits of surgery. Which took about a year and a half post surgery recovery time.
But one strange thing, is I still think of amputation on a daily bases. Because I can't run, jump, dance, bounce, or any spontaneous/aggressive movement because my shoulder is so damn weak. My arm still feels like a ball and chain slowing and holding me down, so I may get my shoulder fused to create some more stability so I can be more athletic again. If I didn't have the hand function I do have, I would amputate w/out hesitation. I only bring this up to help you get a glimpse of what someones experience and thoughts are like that has a similar injury to your husband. I wish you both the best.
Chris
But one strange thing, is I still think of amputation on a daily bases. Because I can't run, jump, dance, bounce, or any spontaneous/aggressive movement because my shoulder is so damn weak. My arm still feels like a ball and chain slowing and holding me down, so I may get my shoulder fused to create some more stability so I can be more athletic again. If I didn't have the hand function I do have, I would amputate w/out hesitation. I only bring this up to help you get a glimpse of what someones experience and thoughts are like that has a similar injury to your husband. I wish you both the best.
Chris
Re: surgery or not??
My advice, as someone who along with others has been studying this injury for years is to get a second opinion, urgently, from someone who is far more used to treating adult trauma injuries.
The treatment for traumatic injuries is different, in many cases to that for OBPI.
Waiting 1-1.5 years for surgery is not an option as far as I can see. We still get people told this here in the UK and it is TOTALLY the wrong advice in my opinion as the ultimate time to attempt a repair to the plexus is a fairly short one.
Lizzy B
The treatment for traumatic injuries is different, in many cases to that for OBPI.
Waiting 1-1.5 years for surgery is not an option as far as I can see. We still get people told this here in the UK and it is TOTALLY the wrong advice in my opinion as the ultimate time to attempt a repair to the plexus is a fairly short one.
Lizzy B