Essay On Brachial Plexus Injury

Before depicting what causes a brachial plexus injury we must first understand what the brachial plexus is. “The brachial plexus is a network of nerves formed by the union of cervical vertebrae (C5-C8) to thoracic vertebra (T1)” (McDonald & Pettigrew, 2014, 147). This means the plexus starts at the neck and into the armpit. Because of these nerves, we have feeling and strength from our shoulders to hands. Brachial plexus injuries are more common in males than females. This could be due to the causes of a brachial plexus injury. The main cause of brachial plexus injury is trauma usually by motorcycle or automobile accidents. However, there has been 89% increase in brachial plexus injuries in military services. Military injuries are caused by penetration, meaning that of a bullet or other sorts (Chambers, Hiles, & Keene, 2014). According to Mayo Clinic (2016), brachial plexus injuries are caused by
CIMT involves restricting the non-affected upper extremity along with intensive and repetitive training of the affected arm and hand. During all therapy sessions, and for majority of waking hours, movement of the non-affected arm is supposed to stay restricted. Therapy focuses on tasks that are suitable to the patient’s interests and needs for self-care. An example of a task may include having a patient reach for out for something that is at arm’s length away. Then, progressively move the object higher making the patient reach up further to grasp the object. The purpose of keeping the non-affected arm restricted is to encourage use of the injured arm. The restriction also helps prevent learned non-use of the injured arm. Interventions have shown that patients who had little to no use of their extremity and chose to go through CIMT have been able to complete up to 15 tasks by the end of 14 weeks of therapy (Vaz et al.,