United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hi all, it's been 3 months since Owen's mod quad. He is 15 months old now. We have seen a remarkable change in his ability to raise his arm and move it side to side. He is also using it to crawl and use both hands to pick up balls and other things. However, he still cannot bring it to his mouth because he cannot bend his arm still. He uses his other arm to bend it. How long does it take before bending, if any, occurs? I'm really concerned about this part of it. Thanks.

Roy,

Regaining bicep function is generally associated with reinnervation from the primary surgery. I don't recall ever hearing that the MQ increased function of the bicep. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, just that I've never heard of it.

Hannah had the primary at 6 months and MQ at 11 months. It really wasn't until she was over a year that we started to see gains in the bicep function. That's over 6 months after primary surgery. It really takes time for those nerves to grow. And when it finally gets there, you have to retrain the brain to use it. Hannah is over 2 now and she can bend the elbow when she wants to. However, she still uses those reflex patterns she learned as an infant sometimes (like elbow sticking out).It's something we work on a lot.

You should probably discuss it with your BPI doc. If the primary wasn't done then they can still do nerve transfers.

Good Luck!