Prevention and management of the complication of contralateral C7 nerve root transfer through the prespinal route to repair the brachial plexus nerve root avulsion injury / 中华骨科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the occurrence, prevention and management of surgical complication of contralateral C7 nerve root transfer through the prespinal route to repair the brachial plexus nerve root avulsion injury. Methods From Feb. 2002 to Aug. 2009, 425 patients were performed the contralateral C7 nerve root transfer through the prespinal route with this procedure. There were 379 males and 46 females,with the average age of 21 years (range, 3 months to 56 years). The contralateral C7 nerve root was sectioned at the distal of the middle trunk in 15 cases, at the distal of the anterior and posterior division in 410 patients. The surgical complications related to the health C7 nerve root section and the make of tunnel through the prespinal route and others were analyzed retrospectively. Results The incidence rate of complication was 5.2%(22/425). The surgical complications related to the make of prespinal route including 2 cases had the severe bleeding during the operation because of vertebral artery injury; transitory laryrecurrent nerve palsy occurred in 5 cases, the pain and numbness occurred on the donor upper limber in 4 cases when the patients swallowed. The complications related to the section of contralateral C7 nerve root including the extension of finger and thumb was dysfunction in 5 patients after the operation, 3 cases had the severely pain on the health upper limber, Horner's sign occurred on donor side in 2 children suffered birth palsy, and C6 nerve root was mistaken sectioned as C7 in 1 case. Other serious perioperative complication including the thromboses of the cerebral trunk occurred in 1 case 42 hours postoperative and died in hospital 38 days after the operation. Conclusion The procedure of contralateral C7 nerve root transfer through the prespinal route is safe. The effective method to prevent this complication occurrence is to expose the origin segment of vertebral artery when making prespinal route.