United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

My 23 yr old son is 22 months post car accident resulting in LTBPI (5 avulsions) along with other injuries. After two major and a few minor surgiries up at the Mayo Clinic, (great place) we are trying to get along with life. There is a lawsuit currently aginst the person responsible for the accident and we have the daunting challenge of trying to explain the severity of the pain. After monitoring this site for close to 2 years I am very aware of the severity and the longevity of this terrible pain, but what I need is to find actually documented studies on BPI pain especially concerning avulsions (short term and long term). Although the people on this site are the real experts on pain, Lawyers, Arbitrators, Mediators and Judges like to see some initials behind the authors name (M.D., Phd., CPA. etc) So any articles, studies, research, would be deeply appreciated so as to help build this "Legal Case" (lawyer talk) Thanks again
Steve

Hi Steve,

It's good to hear from you. The only thing I remember seeing on this site re pain is a thread where bpi people described how it felt to them - as opposed to referrals to studies. This has to be a real challenge for you - I'm not sure how pain actually is "measured" in a scientific sense (as opposed to a person's perception per se). But another avenue you might explore is that of amputees, since I'm told the ghost pain is similar. I'll be interested in other posts to this thread, and keep us updated on the lawsuit.

Ellen

Hey Steve try a google search for Brachial Plexus pain. Or traumatic brachial plexus pain

Steve,

As far as I know, there have never been any real studies on BPI pain at all, no 'official' ones anyway.

Your best bet is to contact the BPI pain experts starting with Dr Belzberg, who seems to be the most sympathetic pain man I have met from the USA. I can contact a few people over here (I'm in the UK) and see if it will help, but not sure if the lawyers or whatever would take on board any expert input from Drs from another country.

Dr Belzberg can be contacted from the medical resources pages on this website..here is a direct link http://ubpn.org/medicalresources/be ... ntact.html

Good luck with your search and the litigation. If there is anthing I can do in my capacity as the chairperson of the TBPI Group Charity here in the U.K. let me know. I have been through a similar thing to a lawsuit a few years ago and know what you are facing.

Lizzy B

You may have seen the following link by Dr. Belzberg on pain:

http://ubpn.org/awareness/A2003pain.html

Hope it helps.

Lourdes

My 19 year old was treated by Dr.Belzberg for nerve injury pain. He also had a nerve repair performed by Dr. Belzberg and we are ever so pleased with the outcome.

I have to agree that Dr. Belzberg was the only medical person who took the pain problem to heart. Many wanted to do the nerve repair but he was the only on to look at the entire person.

Good luck.

Steve search it there is alot out there but YOU need to look.

Hi Steve
Sorry to hear about your son, glad you're pursuing the driver who did this.
There are some relevant studies which talk about the pain, here's a link to the uk tbpi site page on central pain (a name for the pain syndrome accompanying avulsion injuries) there are references at the bottom of the page to various articles about pain in bpi from various doctors http://www.tbpiukgroup.homestead.com/ce ... inbpi.html
here's another one http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/quer ... t=Abstract although many of these studies seek to prove methods of pain relief via reinnervation etc, they all make the point that reinnervation doesn't happen, or doesn't work, in many cases. These studies have been made because the pain is such a significant factor of avulsion injuries.
I have never seen a study on long term injuries and the pain from overuse and postural problems which occur over years of unbalanced body use, but this also is a factyor your lawyer should try and factor in. Dr Kline from LSU has probably the longest tem experience in the US with tbpi, it may be that someone like him would have details on long term pain or may be able to help.
If I find any more references I'll post them. Hope this helps.
Jen NZ

Thanks for all the suggestions, will keep researching
Steve