United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

My son Thomas has had Primary and secondary surgery.
He is five and we have been serial casting his arm to get it straighter. We have got to the point were we cant any more they suggested an MRI of his elbow and we where informed that he has a deformation of the elcrinon process which is still growth plate or cartilage.
And not to do anything about it no casting no surgery. I am hunting any info on any others that have had surgery or gone through this.
Thanks
Carron

Carron,

Can you share for how long your son had an elbow contracture and how many degrees? My son had about a 5 degree contracture since he was 6 months old. He is almost 4 now and I have always been concerned about that causing deformity in the elbow joint. I wonder if most of the children who have active elbow flexion tend have contractures.

Sema

Thomas has always had one to some degree at this time with a big growth spurt it went to 45 we got him out with casting to 25 degrees but its back to 30 at this time. He has little to no triceps and a bundle of biceps I say it like that because that is how his biceps feels like a little rock.. nothing like the other. I think most kids with bpi have an elbow contractor if you look at any pictures of these kids they all have a bent elbow to some extent. I am sure after my research most with bad ones have to wait till the growth plate turns to bone to have it shaved off to correct the bony block at the elbow. Hope this helps. Wish I had more to offer. I am just thankful he can get his hand to his mouth and has good use of his hand.

Carron,
I just wanted to say hello. I haven't "seen" you in a long while. I hope you get the answers you need regarding Thomas and his elbow problems! Hope you are all doing well these days.
~Krista~

Hey, we are doing well. How is are you doing?

Hello,

My BPI son is now 8 years old. He also has no tricepts but has pretty good bicepts. When he was 3 years old, he developed a contracture in his elbow. We did serial casting, arm braces, etc. His contracture after serial and braces was about 25 degrees, down from about 30 degrees. We saw Dr. Nath and Dr. Shenaq then and they both recommended a bicept tendon lenthening. We did that when he was 3 years old. His arm was immediatly straight and stayed that way for awhile. He does now have a slight contracture but it is about 5 -10 degree. It is still much better then when he was 3 and sometimes it is a matter of habit or preference that he holds it bent. We do keep him very active, swimming, baseball. Sports that require him to use all the muscles. We were glad that we did the Bicept legnthening as it has held pretty good. It has been 5 years since that surgery and he has not had any additional surgeries. (He had Primary at 12 months, MOD Quad at 20 months, and bicept lengthening at 3 years old.)

Keep doing research and you may find something that will help the contracture. We did dynamite splint for a while with some success.

http://www.myspace.com/xraysparks
I have a slide show of Thomas on myspace you can see how his arm is..Thanks carron