BRACHIAL-PLEXUS INJURIES GUIDELINES FOR MANAGEMENT - OUR EXPERIENCE

In spite of the progress made by microneurosurgery, the treatment of b rachial plexus injuries still remains a great challenge. This personal series of 49 patients with brachial plexus injuries (excluding tumour s and thoracic outlet syndromes) is peculiar because the cases arose a fter the introduction in Italy of the law requiring all motorcyclists to wear a safety helmet. Our experience confirms that there has been a 32% increase in very severe almost irreparable injuries of the plexus in comparison with previous data reported in the literature. This is probably due to the higher rate of survival among severely-injured pat ients, although the possibility of a direct effect of the helmet on th e plexus cannot be completely discarded. Our results confirm the good prognosis of the microsurgical repair of C5-C6 stretch injuries and in fraclavicular lesions.