RESEARCH ARTICLE
Extended Long-Term (5 Years) Outcomes of Triangle Tilt Surgery in Obstetric Brachial Plexus Injury
Rahul K Nath*, Chandra Somasundaram
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2013Volume: 7
First Page: 94
Last Page: 98
Publisher ID: TOORTHJ-7-94
DOI: 10.2174/1874325001307010094
Article History:
Received Date: 23/1/2013Revision Received Date: 21/3/2013
Acceptance Date: 22/3/2013
Electronic publication date: 29/4/2013
Collection year: 2013
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/) which permits unrestrictive use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Objective:
We evaluated the "extended" long-term (5 years) functional outcomes in obstetric brachial plexus injury (OBPI) patients, who underwent triangle tilt surgery between February 2005 and January 2008.
Methods:
Twenty two children (9 girls and 13 boys, mean age at surgery was 5.8 years; ranging 2.1-11.8 years old), who initially presented with medial rotation contracture and scapula deformity secondary to obstetric brachial plexus injury were included in this study. Functional movements were evaluated pre-operatively, and 5 years following triangle tilt surgery by modified Mallet scale.
Results:
Here, we report long-term (5 years) follow-up of triangle tilt surgery for 22 OBPI patients. Upper extremity functional movements such as, external rotation (2.5±0.6 to 4.1±0.8, p<0.0001), hand-to-spine (2.6±0.6 to 3.4±1.1, p<0.005), hand-to-neck (2.7±0.7 to 4.3±0.7, p<0.0001), hand-to-mouth (2.3±0.9 (92º±33) to 4.2±0.5 (21º±16), p<0.0001), and supination (2.6±1.1 (-8.2º ±51) to 4.1±0.7 (61±32)) were significantly improved (p<0.0001), and maintained over the extended long-term (5 years). Total modified Mallet functional score was also shown to improve from 14.1±2.7 to 20.3±2.5.
Conclusions:
The triangle tilt surgery improved all shoulder functions significantly, and maintained over the extended long-term (5 years) in these patients.
