A new surgical technique developed by the University of Vienna is giving hope to individuals who have suffered serious brachial plexus injuries.
Nerves in the brachial plexus start in the neck and then out into the shoulders, arms and hands.
Brachial plexus injuries often result from severe trauma, whether it be a trucking or motorcycle accident or some serious impact injury in
a sporting event.
Until recently, surgical intervention could restore some use of the arms, but not use of the hands. The injury permanently separated the nerves
of the arms from the hands sometimes called an “inner amputation”.
This left individuals with a brachial plexus injury feeling very helpless, often with withered hands.
The newly developed procedure, bionic reconstruction, amputates the hands and replaces them with advanced prostheses.
Nerves are transplanted from other parts of the body.
New nerve signals can then be generated into these prostheses allowing grasping, gripping and other hand movements.
The newly transplanted nerves are then trained to work with the new prostheses.
This is a brand new procedure as of 2015 and it will take some time and study to see if it of permanent benefit, but the results, so far, are
encouraging.
I’m Ed Smith, a personal injury lawyer in Sacramento, California and I’ve been assisting people who suffered amputations from serious trauma
since 1982.
Our Web page discussing amputations in more detail is here.
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