United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hello,

My son is 5 1/2 years old with a LBPI (avulsion). He has had two other surgeries but is now being recommended for a forearm osteotomy. The Dr. would be Dr. Davino. Can anyone tell me if this surgery is helpful? Any feedback will be appreciated.

Thank you.

Andrea

I just did a search of Osteotomy and came up with more than 300 hits, so people are commenting on it in the boards in the past, if not right now in response to your message. I have recurring BPN myself, so I have no experience with this myself.


Message was edited by: rbwalton

Hi Andrea - a forearm osteotomy is done to change the position of the hand. So is your son's hand oversupinated (too palms up) or overpronated (too palms down)? That would be the reason to do it. The outcome would be that your son's hand would be positioned better so that he could have access to more function with it. Does that make sense? Dr. Davino wouldn't do the surgery unless he really needed it.

Best of luck in making your decision. Surgery decisions are never easy.

Thanks for your reply. His hand is oversupinated.

You are right surgery decisions are never easy.

Julia,

Thank you very much for your reply and for telling me about your son and your decision. Yes we are worried but we don't want to put off the surgery because our son arm is really bent and the hand is so supinated and I think that is why they are recommending it now. I don't know that waiting will do him any good. He had serial casting for a few months and it did not help.

I have heard and read good things about Dr. Davino but it is just not easy when you need to make decisions for your children but I don't want him to later ask us why we didn't do this or that.

I may email you with some questions. I do appreciate your giving me your email.

Andrea

I'm sorry that I cannot be of help to you with your questions, but I am wondering...what causes the forearm to be over supinated? (My son is pronated, so that is new to me.) Best wishes with you decisions for your son. I know it is never easy.

It depends on which nerves and muscles come back to life first. As muscles start to work the bones grow in what ever direction they are being pulled/pushed so it just depend on how the muscles work and what direction bones are pulled/pushed. I don't know all the science of it but that is what happened to my son, his arm was twisted and his arm was stuck in the supination position. He actually has had a humeral osteotomy and forearm osteotomy with Dr. Devino. Each surgery my son had improvements and now he uses his arm more frequently in everyday use because it is in a better position and he doesn't have to work so hard to use it. We feel that Dr. Devino is great and was great with our son.

Frankies palm is up one doctors said do the surgery and Dr Kozin felt that he uses it palm up to help carry and support things and to turn it down he would stop using it and since he has no finger use it would then be totally non functional as he couldn't even pick things up. What are the benefits to this surgery as far as function and what will he loose. I would get a second opinion Mare

I agree, I'd get a second opinion before you make a decision. So far thankfully, my son hasn't had any surgeries, he's 8 months now, but they are thinking he may need surgery on his shoulder when he's a little bigger. But we follow up with 3 different specialists to make sure he's getting the best care possible. They all are a little different, but I like getting more than one option on things. It helps for us to make decisions knowing that more than one doctor agrees something needs to be done. Good luck with your decision.