United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hi everyone,

My daughter has a bilateral injury (her right arm having sustained a much worse injury than her left). She had hand-to-mouth on her left by 3 months, but needed primary surgery on her right in January to attempt to correct ruptured C5 and avulsed C6.

She is now 8 months old, and when I hold her arms straight, they are still the same length. However, our specialist has warned us the right arm will probably end up 10% shorter than the left... Would I already see evidence of this, or does the length discrepency show up later in her toddlerhood?

I'm a bit confused as to why they are still the same length if they won't stay that way...

Thank you for your responses!!!

mica

Sarah is 5 now and I can see a slight difference in hers..

Hi Mica
I am Angela, mom to Jill, born Severe Left OBPI. Jill is now age 23, got married last summer, and will graduate in May with her Bachelors in Art Education.

Her Left arm is shorter than her right, and her left hand is smaller, her left shoulder is smaller too.

I would like to share something tho. When Jill was in kindergarten (for Thanksgiving) they drew around BOTH hands to make Turkey's that were facing each other.
Jill was SOOOOO excited when she came home with her BEAUTIFUL picture.
She exclaimed
"Look I drew a Daddy turkey and a Mommy turkey". (Well of course the mommy turkey was smaller).
Jill was so excited AND so happy, I saw the positive and Decided then and there that SHE had such a positive attitude about the fact that her two hands were of different Sized. She and her injury and her School time ahead would go O.K.

Later in High School.......In warmer weather they can wear shorts. Our school has a regulation that the shorts MUST be as long as the ends of your fingertips. WELL, Jill said "If need be, I'll just make sure they look at my shorter Left Arm, if they think my shorts are too short". Again another positive from her perspective.

Jill sounds so neat!!! I hope to goodness I can instill that positive attitude in Aria!

It's "normal" for there to be length differences. I have about an 8 cm difference between my Left and Right. It's all in my humerous bone.
As well my wrist is smaller on the Left, arm is skinnier, but my hand is the same as right side.

http://www.shoulderdystociainfo.com/fetalinjuries.htm
"Brachial plexus injuries can also produce secondary effects. Muscle imbalances produced in the hand, arm, and shoulder may result in osseous deformities of the shoulder and elbow and in dislocations of the radial head. The development of the affected arm may be compromised, resulting in its being as much as 10 cm shorter than the nonaffected arm."

Marieke (31, LOBPI)

Brandon is ROBPI and his left arm is shorter than his right....go figure !!! Figure that one out !! GAYLE

Gayle,

Oh my goodness!!!

It's interesting how these (and other) injuries affect us! My right shoulder is about 1 inch longer than my left, and I've never really thought about it. But since learning about OBPI's and arm length differences, I've remembered injuring my right shoulder and back pretty badly when I was young. Looks like it affected my growth!

just as a side point... sometimes there may seem to be a difference but it might not be a true bone length difference - it may be how one arm is positioned (in the shoulder joint) versus the other and if there are any contractures that pull the arm up more...

Maia's arm is about 3 1/2 inches shorter.

Lexi's affected arm is significantly shorter than the other arm. Fortunately, all of the medical professionals we've talked to have told us that there will be very few functional effects from the discrepancy. As a five year old, she doesn't care and I don't think has even noticed. I'm sure there will be cosmetic concerns later, but we remain as always positive with her. She's beautiful!

My arm is 3-1/2" shorter and aside from the cosmetic difference there are other issues.
Many daily activities call for the use of both arms and when one is shorter than the other it can often create a problem.
That is where compensations come into play but there is a price for compensation after many years.

One other issues later on is the unaffected arm.
In order to use both arms we must keep the unaffected are restricted to the length of the affected arm.
This cause tightness in the unaffected arm.
It is just as important to do rom on unaffected arm as it is to do it on the affected arm.

After year of restricting my arm I need to have ART therapy to loosen up my left unaffected arm.
It is tight and has knots in the elbow.
When we carry trays books or even sit at the typewriter.
I have the keyboard closer to accommodate my robpi arm and of course my left unaffected arm is bent at the elbow.

I hate to say this but medical professionals cannot tell you what the functional difficulties will be.
First of all there are no studies on adults and the effects of obpi on our entire body.
In fact there are no studies on how this injury impacts our lives and how we are able to function.
Most medical professionals have never examined an adult nor do they ask about daily functions.
I have found most doctors basically just ignore the obpi arm because they know little about it.
I hate these types of statements because they are not based on any medical studies or facts.
It is actually guessing on the part of the medical professional and I feel it is a disservice to both the parents and child.
The length difference in our arms creates an imbalance in our body and has an impact on our ability to fully function in a normal way.
We can function and compensate but it is most definately not just cosmetic!

Kath robpi/adult