United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

On Tuesday I sow a Doctor @ NW Hospital in Chicago that thinks I would benefit from the Drez operation. His name is Dr Levy and he told my husband and I that he's in charge of case studies on BPI people and their pain. He also said he has studied our injury for 25 yrs and he feels he is one of the best in the states for pain management related to BPI. If you go to Northwestern Hosp. web sight he is on there. My question is....has anyone had this done? He said I have a 1% chance of tingling in my legs but the the pain would be 90% gone....I have been a Mayo patient for 16 yrs (32 visits and 8 surgeries, I'm 34 now) Dr Levy knows all my doctors from there and I am trusting him. Should I? Anyone out there that has had this done? Tell me everything. He also gave me a perscription for PT. Does everyone do that, too? If anything it will feel good to get this arm up and away from my side, its been stuck there ALONG time.
Kath

HI, WHAT IS THE DREZ OPERATION? I HAVE NO FEELING OR MOVEMENT FROM MY ELBOW DOWN TO MY FINGER TIPS. COULD YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS OPERATION. THANKS. KAREN

Karen

The drez is a surgery to help relieve pain from the brain's unanswered signals to the avulsed nerves. It is considered very risky due to the close proximity of the nerves in the spine. Drs coterize the ends of the avulsed nerves at the spine to help stop the pain most of us suffer from. I have only heard of 3-4 people who have had this done. Of those none had any other paralysis but the risk is there. Most report pain relief initially but one person said the pain eventually came back. It seems a last resort type thing. It will not give you any arm function just may curb the pain. I'm chicken but it would be nice to be pain free just one day.

John K

My husband, Jason is having the DREZ Oct. 27 at Duke University, where the operation was developed back in the 70s (I think it was the 70s). The doctor was very upfront, there is no guarentee that any of the pain will go away. He told us that it could be 10-90% pain relief with possible weakness in the legs. He also said that the pain can come back over time. He said this was the best option for avulsed nerves. If this doesn't work, he can try a motor cortex stimulator(they implant a stimulator on the motor cortex in the brain, similar to the spinal cord implant, but is internalwith no external controls.)He said that it is an option but he has had mixed results with that and avulsed nerves. He has been doing the DREZ for many years too and averages 2-3 a year. It doesn't sound like much, but avulsion of the nerves is not as frequent as stretched and severed. I am very confident that this surgery will work with minimal side effects. We are hoping for at least 25% pain relief. Jason would be a new man! If it doesn't give the results we want, I'm not sure where we'll go from here. None of the medications(he's been on all of them, anti-seizure, anti-drepressants, you name it!) They just don't work. He's been on Oxycontin for two years. He started with 20mg 2x a day and is now at 80mg 5x a day. If he keeps up this pace, I could be a widow in 10 years b/c the long term effects are already showing and he's only 27.

Jason used to do PT/OT but it was discontinued by the therapist early on b/c they weren't getting any results with the arm. Since then he had a nerve transplant by Dr. Nath and has regained some of the bicept back. He had a below elbow amputation done last year b/c the weight of the arm was causing the scapula to wing and he's missing part of his collar bone so it was difficult to hold the arm up.

All I can say is do your research, ask around, read the boards. There are many doctors out there. We live in the St. Louis area and go to Barnes-Jewish Hospital Pain clinic. Those drs never heard of the DREZ, along with the 20-30 other doctors we've seen. They all said the same thing: You'll be on pain medication the rest of your life. They also said he would never move his arm again but Jason has pretty good movement now and with work,I think he will get to the point of being able to hold something between the arm and the body. He might even be able to get a prostetic.

I will let everyone know how this all turns out. Sorry if I drug this post out, I just have a lot to say. Good luck with whatever decision you decide.

Amy and Jason

HI,
THANK YOU FOR EXPLAINING WHAT THE DREZ OPERATION INVOLVES. WHAT DOES DREZ STAND FOR THOUGH? I HAVE BEEN READING ABOUT ALL THE PAIN EVERYONE IS IN. I AM NOT IN THAT MUCH PAIN, INFACT IT IS JUST ANNOYING IN THE HAND. I FEEL A LOT OF TINGLING AND SOMETIMES BURNING SENSATIONS IN MY FINGER TIPS. I DO FIND OUT ON WED. THE RESULTS OF MY MRI. I HOPE THE NERVES ARE ONLY STRETCHED. THANKS AGAIN, KAREN

Kath, DREZ stands for Dorsal Route entry Zone. It's quitre a rare surgery mainly because of the risks, there is also quite a high failure rate. Because of this most pople only consider it after many years of extreme pain, it's an operation of last resort. For an extremely graphic description of a DREZ op, see this thread on the uk message board http://pub28.ezboard.com/fadultswithbra ... =689.topic Sue from LA describes in detail how the first few days after the surgery, also at Duke. It's a very long thread, so maybe get a cuppa ready first......

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