Treatment

Treatment depends on several factors including the severity of the injury, the type of injury, the length of time since the injury and other existing conditions.

Nerves that have only been stretched may recover without further treatment.

Your doctor may recommend physical therapy to keep your joints and muscles working properly, maintain range of motion, and prevent stiff joints.

Surgery to repair brachial plexus nerves should generally occur within six months after the injury. Surgeries that occur later than that have lower success rates.

Nerve tissue grows slowly, so it can take several years to know the full benefit of surgery. During the recovery period, you must keep your joints flexible with a program of exercises. Splints may be used to keep your hand from curling inward.

Types of surgery

• Neurolysis. This procedure consists of freeing up the nerve from scar tissue.
• Nerve graft. In this procedure, the damaged part of the brachial plexus is removed and replaced with sections of nerves taken from other parts of your body. This provides a bridge for new nerve growth over time.
• Nerve transfer. When the nerve root has been torn from the spinal cord, surgeons often take a less important nerve that's still working and connect it to a nerve that's more important but not working. This provides a bypass for new nerve growth.
• Muscle transfer. Muscle transfer is a procedure in which your surgeon removes a less important muscle or tendon from another part of your body, typically the thigh, transfers it to your arm, and reconnects the nerves and blood vessels supplying the muscle.

Pain control

Pain from the most severe types of brachial plexus injuries has been described as a debilitating, severe crushing sensation or a constant burning. This pain resolves for most people within three years. If medications can't control the pain, your doctor might suggest a surgical procedure to interrupt the pain signals coming from the damaged part of the spinal cord.