United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hello from a newbie,
My son is 12, had the release and transfer of lat. dorsi last Nov. We tried with a dynasplint to fix his contracture but he would wake up with ulnar nerve pain. The doc. that did the surgery said it would not work, his bones were fixed. He said he could come up with some surgery but he may loose a bit of hand to mouth mobility.

He now looks like his contracture is worse and in my brain, as he grows it will get worse. I am surprised the doc. did not say to do a soft splint at night just to prevent further contraction.

So...has anyone had any elbow surgeries?? We are seeing a specialist on Friday. We also know some amazing docs. in Baltimore at the Rubin Institue for Advaced Orthopedics that are going to review the x-rays from the local elbow expert. They are lengthening limbs and all sorts of crazy stuff!! My son also has a hip disease called Perthes, unrelated to the BPI.

Any input would be appreciated.

Stephen's mom

I have not had any surgeries for elbow contracture, but I do use the dynasplint. It seems to actually work for me, when I actually keep it on. I wear it to bed and have a bad habit of taking it off in the middle of the night. I never remember getting up but apparently I do. I guess it is from my arm starting to hurt in the middle of the night. I can't think of anything else it would be. When I would leave it on, I would have some pain, soreness in the morning.
Sarah/13/ROBPI

I would strongly suggest seeing an OT who can do some serial splinting using a plastic material that gets soft when warm (thermoplastic). Then use a neoprene sheet strap (meaning its one really big, arm size piece of neoprene, that straps the arm in place) This can be adjusted to gain range of motion if the arm is not already stuck because of the bones. It the bones are already fused then you can not gain range but you can prevent it from getting worse by wearing the splint at night.

Hope that helps,
Amy 22 years old ROBPI from MN

we are doing serial casting right now...seems to be working but will have to do night splints after the casting is done. Dr. Nath suggested it, said he scheduled quite a few kids for surgery and suggested the casting before they came...and they showed up with straight arms and surgery cancelled. will do what it takes for the chance of a cancelled surgery but Katie is getting kind of tired of the whole routine. Her injury was pretty involved and lots of residuals left so we worry about her giving up on us.

Speaking from my experience with Maia (11 1/2) - contractures can't always be fixed. It all depends on the cause of the contracture. Sometimes an elbow contracture exists because of a what's going on in the in the shoulder joint (rather than what's going on in the elbow). Every child is different.

Ok , I never heard the work Contracture ? If it means how bent the erbs arm is ? Then My Birth erbs arm and fractured elbow never healed right. So I have a bent for 57 yrs. It never got contraced more over my life time. I did get plenty of streaching my erbs driving a semi for 20 years. Hopefully this help answer will it get worse ??

Tom

I think I should tell you to that in the 1960s. The doctors then only had one offer for me to straight my erbs arm was to cut the tendon in my elbow . Sure it would look better but then I could not pull my erbs arm in ward. I do think it is way harder now because there is a huge differants on what can be tryed. Good Thing their is help here.

Best TRYS,

Tom