Introduction | Who is who | What is it? | What to do? | Plexus repair | Secondary surgery | Physiotherapy | Late aspects | Centers | Related events | Links | Glossary

Introduction

First described in 18th century by the English Pathologist SMELLIE, the lesion was related to its clinical picture by the French surgeon, DANYAU, at the beginning of the 19th Century.

In 1867, the French neurologist, DUCHENNE DE BOULOGNE, related the lesion directly to obstetrical trauma and gave it its name of “paralysie obstétricale”.

Many surgeons have been interested in the lesion since then but a remarkable work was done by two New York neurosurgeons, TAYLOR and KENNEDY, who in 1902 published their first results after surgical repair of the plexus. Unfortunately, however, surgical repair of the plexus also came with a high rate of anesthetic complications.

From 1970, NARAKAS from Switzerland and MILLESI from Austria revived the surgical repair of the plexus by treating adults who had traumatic injuries. In 1977 surgeons GILBERT in Paris and MORELLI, RAIMONDI and PETROLATI in Italy established the protocol and treatment that is still currently in use.

Since then, several teams in Switzerland, Holland, England, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Japan and North America have developed expertise in treating these patients.

The opinions given on this site are based on the experience of over 1.000 brachial plexus "primary surgeries" and 800 "secondary surgeries" that have been followed for over the past twenty years by the Paris and Milan teams. Some of the issues are still controversial but are continuously being discussed by the major international teams in gatherings in Heerlen, Holland, yearly .

From these meetings and from papers published in recognized journals, our indications and techniques have become more and more refined. The existence of support groups has been of great interest to the surgical teams. They have enabled the surgeons to encompass wider aspects of the problem.

An international data bank has been formed and information from cases around the world is being collected. Treatment is also being promoted in developing countries.