RESUMO
Injuries to the upper limb vary in type. The overall incidence, including the form which is revealed by paralysis, is 2.6 per 1,000 (30 cases in 13,342 deliveries). In 90 per cent of cases it followed a dystocic delivery. The prognosis for these lesions is favourable when the diagnosis is made early and the correct treatment is started in the first days of life. All the same, sequellae are not rare, being in the order of 10 per cent, and this pathological condition should not be considered as a benign one. The pathology of these lesions does not depend only on the second stage of labour, nor entirely on the choice between hysterotomy and vaginal delivery, but equally on the prevention of the birth of large children and on the treatment of maternal obesity, as well as on a better estimation of the size ofthe foetus in utero by the development of measurements of the bi-acromial diameter with the use of ultra-sonic techniques.