Key result
All 10 neonates with post-delivery brachial plexus injury without a history of shoulder dystocia recovered fully within 3 to 6 months following physiotherapy.
Why the study?
Neonatal brachial plexus injury is a rare complication that causes significant parental anxiety and legal disputes, despite often being self-limited.
Does physiotherapy improve recovery in neonates with post-delivery brachial plexus injury?
Does physiotherapy improve recovery in neonates with post-delivery brachial plexus injury?
Post-delivery brachial plexus injury in neonates is generally self-limiting and recovers with physiotherapy within 3 to 6 months.
Supports physiotherapy for full recovery in these neonates; hypothesis-generating, requires prospective trials before practice change.
Brachial plexus injury in neonates is a rare obstetrical complication, but it can cause huge anxiety to parents if occurring and sometimes leading to legal disputes in obstetrical practice. Trauma during birth delivery is mainly due to the over-stretch of fetal neck which is the main cause of brachial plexus injury in infants. However, those injuries are self-limited and most of them will self-recover. We conducted a retrospective analysis on ten cases diagnosed of post-delivery brachial plexus injury under monitoring at Tu Du Hospital from January to November 2018. Such factors as maternal obstetrical history, labor characteristics, mode of delivery, clinical symptoms and treatment approach of those cases were collected and analyzed. The risk factors of brachial plexus injury in our study included large fetus, interventional delivery, prolonged second stage of labor and shoulder dystocia. All the cases were treated with physiotherapy and recovered after 3 - 6 months. Family counseling and infants’ recovery played an important role in the management of those cases.
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Tuan et al. (2019) studied Post-delivery brachial plexus injury (n=10). Physiotherapy was evaluated on Recovery of injured arms or hands. All 10 neonates with post-delivery brachial plexus injury without a history of shoulder dystocia recovered fully within 3 to 6 months following physiotherapy.
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