brachial/eye problems

[angela d]

My son is 2 yrs old and has a brachial plexus injury to his left arm. He is able to move his arm to some extent but cannot straighten his arm out. My question is does have a child with brachial plexus injury that also has eye problems. My son is severally far sighted and needs to wear glasses.(i just found this out a couple of weeks ago).His left eye is also turning in.I was just curious because the doctors say that this is unrealated,but i think it is.My family does not have a history of eye problems and my 2 other children have 20/20 vision. My son also has to be fitted for inserts for his shoes because his feet are turning in. I just find it hard to believe that none of this is related. Please reply if have simialar story or know of someelse who does.

[jennyinsandiego]

my daughter has Horner's sydrome. This is because the damage was severe enough to hurt her autonomic nervous system as well.It causes the eye to "sink in" and the eyelid to droop. The pupils are also different sizes. It can also cause color change as this system is responsible for pigment in the eye. Her opthamologist said it won't affect her vision, but she is still a baby so I don't know about that yet. good luck...
Jenny

[Josh'smom]

They always say its NOT related, but how can it not be. My son has a left injury and is 5 1/2. At a recent visit to the dentist he showed me my sons teeth and he has a left side overbite. Only left side--how can it not be related. It ls so funny, all the teeth on the left side stick out. As a young baby, his "left" testicle didnt drop---how can it not berelated (it has since, but still). I BELIEVE IT IS ALL RELATED to the injury. I am definately gonna have his eyes checked after I read your story--who knows--but nothing has come up yet about his vision.

[Francine_Litz]

I agree with everone else that it's related...

Maia has turned in feet and wore orthotics with great success (although she has to be get refitted for new ones now). Maia also has jaw instability (we have seen this since she was younger than 2 years old) - it causes jaw pain and she also has a lisp and needs speech therapy because of it. She also has ear problems - difference in hearing, smaller eardrum, smaller ear canal, smaller eustacian tube. She has diaphragm weakness which went undiagnosed until recently and is an asthmatic (even though there is nothing audible - the pulmonary function tests picked up on it - 40% function)

The list goes on..... It's ALL related. Nerve damage has a HUGE big picture involved.

-francine

[Kathleen M]

Angela d

I am adult/obpi and for many years the doctors told me that my pupil did not adjust to light properly.

I became far sighted in my early thirties... my glases are stronger than my brothers who are 13 and 14 years older than I am... I wore glasses first...

I had no idea that this was related to OBPI... no one mentioned Horner's until three years ago.

On the Adult Obpi message board we recently had a thread on this subject -
http://ubpn.org/messageboard/thread ... hread=5695

As Francine said it is the entire side of the body not just our arms, at least in my case it is.

Kath

[Joshua]

Our 8 year old has a small pupil on her BPI side and two very different colored eyes. We haven't had her eyes tested because she reads well and hasn't had any problems seeing. Some Drs have thought she had Horners but we have a family Hx of different sized eyes so it's hard to tell.

I've never heard of Horners relationship to different eye color and I just can't picture how a birth injury could affect eye pigmentation. Is eye pigmentation something that doesn't develop until after birth or does it occur in the uterus?

Joshua

[jennyinsandiego]

Depending on your ethnicity it can take 3-6 months for eye color to be set. Pigment in the eye continues to increase until babies are about a year old. Our eye doc told us he usually sees kids with horner's that is caused by cancer (a tumor compresses the nerve). He said we were lucky we had blue eyes because that nerve (it is the autonomic or sympathetic system) is also responsible for pigment and brown of the affected eye could turn blue.

[Kathleen M]

I guess I was lucky my eye color did not change.

I have an odd color to begin with, they are green with a orange-yellow center... Neither of my parents were green eyed but all of my siblings and many of my cousins have this odd color... glad it did not change my eye color... I barely noted it until recently. I noticed my eye was smaller but my Mom blamed it on my Dad's family... hmmmm.

I just read the link that Nancy posted on the Adult form and found something very interesting about focusing the eye... I wonder if children with Horner's should be checked to see if the muscle's of the eye work properly together... not to scare anyone just might be worth looking into if Horner's is present.

Kath

[Kathleen M]

I have an odd color to begin with, they are green with a orange-yellow center... neither of my parents were green eyed but most of my siblings and many of my cousins have this odd color... glad it did not change my eye color... I barely noted it until recently. I noticed my eye was smaller but my Mom blamed it on my Dad's family... hmmmm.

I just read the link that Nancy posted on the Adult form and found something very interesting about focusing the eye... I wonder if children with Horner's should be checked to see if the muscle's of the eye work properly together... not to scare anyone just might be worth looking into if Horner's is present.

Kath

[admin]

My son hs chronic Conjunctivitis, due to BPI. It is horrible. Other than that I have not seen any other problems asscoiated to his eyes