United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

It's been a year or two since I've been on here. I went to Dr. Tiel the last time I posted. The surgey I there in April 03 failed. My family and I made 4 trips to New Orleans and spent a ton of money to have surgey there. I still can't move my arm and I have more pain in it now. Now I'm off to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester to see if I can have the gracillis muscle transfer surgery. I was wondering what kind of results anyone got from the surgery.

Hi Allen,

I'm so sorry you haven't had success to date. Were there other factors (such as other injuries in the accident) that might have limited surgical options at the time?

My son had both gracilis muscles transferred in Feb & Apr '02 at Mayo-Rochester, and has had good results. With total avulsion, he now can bend his arm & make/release a fist. Therapy now is primarily to build strength in the muscles.

In addition to the movement, he's also had huge relief from pain. He only takes one Neurontin now (600 mg), and before the surgeries he was taking 3600 Neurontin, 200 Topomax & 100 Amitriptyline. I'm convinced he's been able to get off almost his pain meds because the pain signals have been reduced since the arm can now move.

Feel free to email me directly if you have other questions.

Take care,

Ellen