United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

I just received a phone call from a young woman who was injured during TOS surgery. First they said she had bpi... now they say RDL...

Any advice or information would be greatly appreciated.

She lives within 20 minutes of me and we have just began a support group in our area... we have the same PT that is how she found me.... We so far only have kids and me in the group... But I am sure that will change in time.


Thanks
Kath

Hi - my name is Doreen and I am supposed to be having tos/bp surgery so I am interested as to what happened during her surgery to cause injury? I have heard of getting LTN damage or phrenic nerve but what is RDL? They must have gone in under her armpit to cause a bpi. Any info would be appreciated. What area do you live in? I wish there was a support group here in Minneapolis. I can't even find a therapist. Best wishes, Doreen

Today I went to hand specialist and met in the waiting room a woman who had a stretch injury from operation harness...

Her hand was swollen and shoulder frozen - I gave her this website to come to for information and help...

Two tbpi contacts in one week... The doctor was amazed he examined me then went to this lady.

She was advised to keep her hand and arm moving and I just wanted to check that this is a good thing for recent bpi...

Kath

Kath, if it's a stretch injury i'm sure she'll be fine moving the arm and hand, otherwise she'll get atrophied muscles, those little hand muscles freeze up real quickly.
I didnt respond to yr post about the TOS earlier because it's not something i know much about altho i am studying it for Liz's website....watch this space!
BPI can be cause in lots of ways by doctors Doreen, not just by going in under the armpit. Here are a few ways they can be caused; use of neurotoxic drugs, use of drugs to reduce the coagulability of blood, injection of anaesthetic drugs including nerve blocks & interscalene blocks, injection proccing arterial bleeding which can lead to nerve damage, ischaemia caused by lack of proper care in orthopaedic and emergency fracture surgery, pressure and traction injuries to the plexus from incorrect positioning of the patient during prolonged surgery, rough and inexpert handling of the nerves during entrapment surgery (such as TOS surgery), cutting of the nerves during surgery, damage during inexpert relocation of a dislocated joint and bpi damage from radiation (xray) therapy.
There are examples of several of these types of bpi damage on this message board, in the 'Roll call' post and elsewhere. It doesn't seem easy to get the doctors concerned to admit error, some people have problems and delays getting a correct diagnosis because the doctor tells them 'it will get better soon'...that is the case for some of these injuries but not for others. I've posted this quote from Rolfe Birch (a UK bpi specialist) here before but here it is again 'Surgeons must learn to treat seriously a patient's complaint of pain and loss of function after operation; to discard any habit of facile optimism; to investigate the site, nature, extent and depth of any lesion and to act decisively. Above all, the diagnosis of neurapraxia should never be made unless 6 days after injury electrical stimulation of the injured nerve or nerves distal to the level of lesion produces a normal motor response. If there is a wound over the main nerve and there is a lesion of that nerve, the first possibility is that a nerve has been cut. If someone has been around that nerve with a knife in his or her hand, the possibility becomes a certainty.'

Sorry to be so longwinded! To me, it's bad enough getting a bpi in a road accident or other trauma, to be injured by a doctor who then doesn't want to know about it would be awful. There are just too many like this out there, probably even more who STILL don't know what's wrong with them.

Jenny & Doreen

One young girl received this injury during TOS surgery. They now say its RDL??? instead of bpi and I don't understand what RDL is can't seem to find the information I read on it to help her....

The other lady I met at the hand specialist yesterday and it was from back surgery - the harness used... but they sent her for all types of exams immediately because she told me she went to rehab hospital immediately... and her injury happened March... She said she was fine then her hand swelled and of course she has a lot of pain... I took her phone number and gave her this site she said she was not on the internet much.
Thanks for the information I was worried and did not want her to hurt something...
The hand specialist we both went seemed very familiar with both types of bpi and its relationship to the rest of the body... and the results of long term compensation... Reminded me to keep my back straight and not to sit curled with shoulder in... so now I am reminding all of you... I went just for the osteo arthritis in hands... he even checked my rom... that's what I call treating the whole person.
thanks again
Kath