United Brachial Plexus Network

Hi, I have a question..my son who is now 9yrs old. has had several surgeries to repair his left bpi, last surg being the humeral osteotomy. anyone experiencing elbow placement trouble??

Was the osteotomy successful?? I assume not by your question about elbow problems. My son is 12 and his elbow has a fixed contracture of about 15 degrees. His contracture has increased to 30 degrees so we are having this checked out next month. The long arm bones are enlarged at the ends which seems to be affecting the elbow joint. The doctor thought about an osteotomy, but none of us were ready for that; he had just had the release and transfer surgey of his lat. dorsi to his scapula. I am interested in knowing more about what has happened with your son. Stephen's contracture is now more visible and he hangs his arm in front. "They" say as the child grows, that complicates the BPI.
Stephen's mom

He had the humeral osteotomy 6 years ago.Recently he has been complaining of pain in the elbow. although there was not a pinpoint injury to it. Also We have noticed that lately his forearm "hangs" more than usual . We went for xrays at a local ortho's office. He said the elbow is dislocated..BUT not a "new injury" looks like it grew this way. Huh?? so went went to our ortho surgeon and he didn't offer any answers. Just sent us for an immediate MRI..that was a week ago and I have yet to hear back from the office. So, as a mom of a BPI child..I'm back on the web trying to get answers to questions that I have. I'm not sure whats going on. All I know is I have a nine yr old son who has a dislocated elbow that hurts and I don't know if he did this playing football or was it a result of the osteotomy positioning.

Hi Karen,
I have heard of dislocated problems with BPI. Are you near the Cincinnatti area?? Dr. Charles T. Mehlmen has made PBI a passion and he is excellent. I am a mom of 10 opinions, if necessary. My son also has a childhood hip disease and I have had 5 opinions on his hip. Just food for thought.
Stephen's mom

We live in upstate new york. We have traveled to Texas and back a number of times. So Ohio is no problem. I'm just curious if anyone is or has experienced the same elbow problem that we a facing. Any advice is greatly welcomed!!

My son is 17 and has had a dislocated elbow since around the age of 9 it grew that way I have been to see Dr Nath, Dr Cornwall at phil childrens hosp Dr Kozin at shriners all said nothing could be done that it would just pop out again if they did surgery back in Sept he started complaining of a poping and sharp pain so we went to Boston to see Dr Waters he said it is common and could be fixed with surgery but we should wait till frankie felt it hurt bad enough right now he says he can deal with it. I would contact Dr Waters Mare

Common how?? And did your son have the humeral osteotomy?? We did see Waters and had an MRI I'm still waiting for the results. I'm just so worried. He has the snapping/clicking in the elbow. And it is painful for him. He is a active 9 year old boy. I'm just waiting for some answers. just wanted to know if we were alone in this.

Maia had a dislocated elbow for a few years and then it popped back in and no problems since.... <knock on wood>

I know someone else who's older son had a dislocated elbow and it didn't pop back in and they did a surgery to cut off the radial head -- but they waited until he was really in pain and there was no way out. But I don't think the surgery stopped him from doing anything.

Yes Francine that is what they would do with frankie but Dr Waters wanted to wait since Frankie is a Jr this year and its an important year with college and all and the pain is only when it pops which it doesn't happen all the time yet so he says he can live with it. Its common in bpi because the muscles force it to dislocate due to the postion of the hand frankies is stuck in the palm up position . No he never had an ostiotomey at least not yet but that would change the positon of his hand and frankie and the doctors feel palm up works for him. Mare