United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

I have read several posts requesting info on California TBPI specialists. I finally had my surgery on Sept 29th and recovery is going well. My specialist was Dr. Aaron Filler at the Institute for Nerve Medicine, Santa Monica, CA. Here is the link to his site. Copy and paste it to your browser. http://www.nervemed.com/aboutaf.html
I would definately recommend him. I have only seen his name mentioned a couple of times in the forum. FYI he does not belong to any insurance networks so you may end up with a pretty good out of pocket expense. However, they will set up payment plans with you if you need it. They are easy to work with so do not let that determine your consultation.
In my case, I truly believe he was the most progressive and obvious choice for my injury.
I was lucky and managed to escape without any avulsions. Major entrapments from scar tissue and a trunk requiring a graft. A Neuragen Tube was used for the graft rather than the traditional sural nerve graft. The Nueragen tube promotes healing with less scar tissue than a traditional nerve graft.
Hope this helps with the West Coast BPIers.

MNelson,
Thanks for your post. I hope your surgery brings you back to full recovery. I live in the Los Angeles area and ended up at USC post injury. After lots of research and meetings w/Drs. through out the states I ended up at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota to go under the knife. Some how I never came across Dr. Filler and I'm curious as to why, from looking at his resume it seems as if he may have been switching from UCLA to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and private practice at the time of my injury (12-15-02). I remember being quite frustrated that LA didn't have a team talented enough to deal w/Brachial Plexus injuries.

Anyway, how did you find him, and how long has he been using the Neurogen Tube? I remember hearing about it before they took booth my sural nerves, but didn't push on it, because I couldn't find too much history about it. I have read about his invention of the MR Neurography (Neural MRI) , which seems brilliant, and the fact that he did a fellowship under Dr. Kline at LSU for peripheral nerve surgery speaks volumes it's self.

I hope to do a check up with him and see what he has to offer, at the very least I'll save on airfare if I can do follow ups w/him. Thanks again

Chris

Chris,
When I first had my injury, the doctors didn't have much to say except....That's a real devastating injury, do you have disability insurance or can you be reassigned to desk duty? I am a sheriff's investigator by the way. This obviously didn't sit well with me. There were no recommendations for a BPI specialist. Lucky for me, one of my partners is married to a nurse. The doctor she works with is a neurologist. He took enough interest in my case to call me at home to tell me about Dr. Filler.
I went to USC also. I was on the books for the exploratory surgery and backed out. I was already seeing Dr. Filler, but was paying out of my pocket. My HMO sent me to USC. Then USC wanted all of the tests sent over from Dr Filler's office. USC basically told me a surgery would only allow for some elbow flexion.
Long story short, I am glad I did stay at USC.

I made a typo. The above post should have read, I am glad I did not stay with USC. Anyone interested in Neurogen tubes, here is an intersting article
http://newsroom.eworldwire.com/view_rel ... p?id=10267

MNelson,
I'm glad you got out of there as well. Most of the Drs. were great but my neurosurgeon, Dr. Milan Stevanovic, would never communicate the nature of my injury to me or what the possible outcomes would be in a worst case or best case scenario. I was left just hanging there, he kept on saying 'wait a couple of months and we'll see what comes back", and he was the best they've got? I guess he's a great technical surgeon, but just a bit shy on the verbal aspect of it.

If you need a good Physical Therapist, USC has a very driven therapist that is now teaching there as well, her name is Chris Sebelski. She wants what is best for you and is creative. I'm curious if Dr. Filler recommended a therapist to you that was familiar w/Brachial Plexus injuries, being they are so uncommon. Sebelski had only worked on a few patients w/BPI before me.

I've scheduled an appointment w/Filler at the end of the month. I want to see if he's got any tricks up his sleeve for the neuropathic pain (I've got 3 avulsions and nasty, nasty pain). I'll keep you posted on how it goes. Thanks again for your post, and I know what you're saying about sliding into a desk job, not for me either.

Chris

I had Dr Stevanovic as well. You're right. The communication is horrible.
I'm 2 hours from LA on a good traffic day. I won't be doing PT in LA. So far I am just doing ROM exercises on my own, and haven't had any problems with contractures.
I had email regarding Dr. Filler's pain management. Luckily I have been able to manage the pain without meds. Let everyone know how your consultation goes.
Mike

Does he only do pain relieve or does he perform procedures that might bring back functionality/movement. I checked out the link and appears hisexpertise is in pain relief.

Thanks
Rich from SoCal

Hey Rich,
He performs all the surgeries from transfers and grafts to the more simple nerve releases.
Mike

Mike... I have emailed his office to see if we can list them with the UBPN medical resources and havent heard anything back. Could you put them in contact with me or me with them?? Thanks! My email is wildncrazyney@aol.com

COurt

Court,
I emailed you contact info.
Mike