. 2022 Jun 13;13(3):537-540.
doi: 10.1055/s-0042-1749405.
eCollection 2022 Jul.
Affiliations
Affiliations
- 1 Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Florida Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Florida, United States.
- 2 Department of Anesthesiology, University of Florida Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Florida, United States.
- 3 Department of Radiology, University of Florida Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Florida.
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Gazanfar Rahmathulla et al.
J Neurosci Rural Pract.
.
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. 2022 Jun 13;13(3):537-540.
doi: 10.1055/s-0042-1749405.
eCollection 2022 Jul.
Affiliations
- 1 Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Florida Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Florida, United States.
- 2 Department of Anesthesiology, University of Florida Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Florida, United States.
- 3 Department of Radiology, University of Florida Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Florida.
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Abstract
Background Secondary peripheral nerve injuries remain a significant perioperative problem due to patient positioning and contribute to reduced patient quality of life and exacerbated professional liability. Comorbidities and concomitant lesions can further elicit these injuries in patients undergoing spinal surgeries. Case Presentation We report a case of a 70-year-old male polytrauma patient presenting with a left first-rib fracture and an adjacent hematoma around the brachial plexus without preoperative deficits. Subsequent to a lumbar spinal fusion in the prone position, he developed a postoperative left upper extremity monoplegia. The postoperative magnetic resonance imaging revealed an enhanced asymmetric signal in the trunks and cords of the left brachial plexus. He progressively improved with rehabilitation, a year after the initial presentation, with a residual wrist drop. Conclusions Pan brachial plexus monoplegia, following spine surgery, is rare and under-reported pathology. To minimize the occurrence of this rare morbidity, appropriate considerations in preoperative evaluation and counseling, patient positioning, intraoperative anesthetic, and electrophysiological monitoring should be performed. We emphasize an unreported risk factor in polytrauma patients, predisposing this rare injury that is associated with prone spinal surgery positioning, SEPs being an extremely sensitive test intraoperatively and highlight the importance of counseling patients and families to the possibility of this rare occurrence.
Keywords:
brachial plexus monoplegia; brachial plexus palsy; peripheral nerve; positioning nerve injury.
Association for Helping Neurosurgical Sick People. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ).
Conflict of interest statement
Conflict of Interest None declared.