United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

i know just how you feel i am the same,i have musle imbalance cannot hold my left hand above my head and suffer pain down left tri musle and in my shoulder.

I have a winged scapula. In 1981, I had an aorta-femoral artery bypass, and when I woke up my shoulder hurt more than the surgery. It is my right shoulder and I am right handed. It has become more painful over the years. I have never found a solution to the problem.

Hi Denise,
Sorry to hear about your sons injury. I received my winging scapula while attempting to make an arrest at work. Thought it was just an AC separation, but about 1-½ months later, physical therapy became increasingly painful & I developed the winging scapula. Your question of a BPI being the same as a long thoracic nerve injury in a sense is the same. If the injury is to the upper trunk of the brachial plexus, the long thoracic nerve and the upper trunk are related. I can’t answer the positional dislocation question, that was not part of my diagnosis & I have not read anything on that. I have experienced what it appears most people have, which is there are not many doctors educated in Brachial Plexus Injuries. Since my injury in July 2003, I have done a lot of research and discovered a doctor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston Texas. His name is Dr. Rahul Nath and he has a website devoted to winging scapula. The website explains winging scapula injury, scapula surgery, has info on transportation & support, patient resources, surgeon information & contact information. Here’s the web address, you should check it out, rnath@bcm.tmc.edu Dr. Nath is a reconstructive microsurgeon who does a procedure called surgical decompression and neurolysis. One of his most recent success stories was a South African National Swimming Record Holder (Eugene Botes) who was able to resume training for the April Olympic trials. The article indicates Botes injured himself weightlifting in December. After 6 weeks of therapy he continued to have shoulder instability & winging scapula. He called Dr. Nath on a Friday & a week later was in surgery. Two days later was able to lift his arm fully over his shoulder for the first time since last December, & 10 days later resumed training for the Olympic trials. This article is in the website. Impressive! Needless to say, I recently flew out to TX myself and got an evaluation from Dr. Nath. I was informed that I needed the surgery sooner rather than later. I was not aware that my winging was as sever as it is. I can tell you it is very painful all of the time & my shoulder is unstable. All I can say is check out his website.

As far as locating a doctor in your area, go to the American Medical Association website, www.ama-assn.org When you get there, in the upper left side click on PATIENTS find a doctor, then click on FIND A DOCTOR, under Patients & Consumers click SEARCH FOR PHYSICIAN, under Terms & Conditions click ACCEPT, under Search for Physician click MEDICAL SPECIALTY, (DON’T FILL IN YOUR STATE YET) Find where it says SEARCH FROM EXPANDED LIST OF MEDICAL PRACTICE SPECIALTIES, and click on that. You will get what appears to be the same screen, but the Medical Specialty dropdown box is now expanded. You can now click on the dropdown arrow and enter your STATE. Go to Medical Specialty and select HAND SURGERY. (The Brachial Plexus specialists I’ve used both in CT & TX have listed their specialties as HAND SPECIALISTS. Try this first. I did it under Florida and found 87 specialists there. I’m no expert but I hope the information provided will help you some. Its been very frustrating for me and I don’t take no for an answer, I just tend to do a lot of research. I’ve been out of work for over 9 months & workers comp has finally agreed to allow me to see a Brachial Plexus Specialist, on the condition that surgery is not required. So you see the fight I have on my hands! Unfortunately, we all must deal with morons. Good luck with your son & I hope you find a specialist for him.

D

Hi Denise

Sorry to hear about your sons injury. I received my winging scapula while attempting to make an arrest at work. Thought it was just an AC separation, but about 1-½ months later, physical therapy became increasingly painful & I developed the winging scapula. Your question of a BPI being the same as a long thoracic nerve injury in a sense is the same. If the injury is to the upper trunk of the brachial plexus, the long thoracic nerve and the upper trunk are related. I can’t answer the positional dislocation question, that was not part of my diagnosis & I have not read anything on that. I have experienced what it appears most people have, which is there are not many doctors educated in Brachial Plexus Injuries. Since my injury in July 2003, I have done a lot of research and discovered a doctor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston Texas. His name is Dr. Rahul Nath and he has a website devoted to winging scapula. The website explains winging scapula injury, scapula surgery, has info on transportation & support, patient resources, surgeon information & contact information. Here’s the web address, you should check it out, rnath@bcm.tmc.edu Dr. Nath is a reconstructive microsurgeon who does a procedure called surgical decompression and neurolysis. One of his most recent success stories was a South African National Swimming Record Holder (Eugene Botes) who was able to resume training for the April Olympic trials. The article indicates Botes injured himself weightlifting in December. After 6 weeks of therapy he continued to have shoulder instability & winging scapula. He called Dr. Nath on a Friday & a week later was in surgery. Two days later was able to lift his arm fully over his shoulder for the first time since last December, & 10 days later resumed training for the Olympic trials. This article is in the website. Impressive! Needless to say, I recently flew out to TX myself and got an evaluation from Dr. Nath. I was informed that I needed the surgery sooner rather than later. I was not aware that my winging was as sever as it is. I can tell you it is very painful all of the time & my shoulder is unstable. All I can say is check out his website.

As far as locating a doctor in your area, go to the American Medical Association website, www.ama-assn.org When you get there, in the upper left side click on PATIENTS find a doctor, then click on FIND A DOCTOR, under Patients & Consumers click SEARCH FOR PHYSICIAN, under Terms & Conditions click ACCEPT, under Search for Physician click MEDICAL SPECIALTY, (DON’T FILL IN YOUR STATE YET) Find where it says SEARCH FROM EXPANDED LIST OF MEDICAL PRACTICE SPECIALTIES, and click on that. You will get what appears to be the same screen, but the Medical Specialty dropdown box is now expanded. You can now click on the dropdown arrow and enter your STATE. Go to Medical Specialty and select HAND SURGERY. (The Brachial Plexus specialists I’ve used both in CT & TX have listed their specialties as HAND SPECIALISTS. Try this first. I did it under Florida and found 87 specialists there. I’m no expert but I hope the information provided will help you some. Its been very frustrating for me and I don’t take no for an answer, I just tend to do a lot of research. I’ve been out of work for over 9 months & workers comp has finally agreed to allow me to see a Brachial Plexus Specialist, on the condition that surgery is not required. So you see the fight I have on my hands! Unfortunately, we all must deal with morons. Good luck with your son & I hope you find a specialist for him.

D

Remember, the surgery done by Nath is to correct the winging scapula. It will probably not do anything a all for the pain. Dr Nath himself says this in his article about the surgery. There are absolutely no guarantees that any surgery will ease the pain and some people have got very much worse and then been told the surgery would never have helped with the pain. Get at least 2 opinions, the reason TOS and winging scapula have remained elusive for a 'fix' is quite simply that it isn't that simple a problem, do not allow yourself to be hurried into a surgery that may be experimental. Ask how many of these surgeries your specialist has done. Remember some doctors pay to get themselves placed at the top of the list in a search engine, it doesn't mean they are the best. There are more stories on the internet about failed surgery and 'quacks' for winging scapula and TOS than just about anything else.
Sorry if this is discouraging but when you talk to someone who is suicidal with pain after a surgery that should never have taken place you realise things are not as easy as these websites make it look.

I can’t believe I have just found this forum; I’m a long term sufferer of winging scapular.
I have like many been through the mill with this problem and it took many years before I actually was seen by a surgeon whom was familiar with this nerve injury.

I have had the surgery explained by Nath but due to the time that the long thoracic never had been compressed the decompression was unsuccessful, so I’m now on the waiting list for a dynamic muscle transfer using the pec major.

Wha hey another long wait for me!

I can’t believe I have just found this forum; I’m a long term sufferer of winging scapular.
I have like many been through the mill with this problem and it took many years before I actually was seen by a surgeon whom was familiar with this nerve injury.

I have had the surgery explained by Nath but due to the time that the long thoracic never had been compressed the decompression was unsuccessful, so I’m now on the waiting list for a dynamic muscle transfer using the pec major.

Wha hey another long wait for me!

Winging Scapular, LTN Damage

Im so pleased to find someone with this new problem i have.would you please contact me as I have alot to ask you.thanxs wendy

hello yes i have the same thing as your son and it happened feb this year.my email address is ........wendy_purton@hotmail.com......if you like to know anything i will try to help.Im from tasmania australia.

I have had a winging scap for about 3 weeks now. I am a very athletic person who enjoys sports and the outdoors, I have a son who i want to play ball with someday, the doctors here (ohio) cannot give me any straight answers and i dont want my lat(sca[pula to atrophy! What do i do?! You recieved your wing recently, so I think you understand the fear and frustration.