Mythili Kasthurirengan*

Department of Pediatric Rehabilitation, RECOUP Neuromusculoskeletal Rehabilitation Center, India

*Corresponding Author: Mythili Kasthurirengan, Department of Pediatric Rehabilitation, RECOUP Neuromusculoskeletal Rehabilitation Center, India.

Received: February 18, 2022; Published: March 04, 2022

Abstract

Erb’s palsy is a type of weakness or paralysis of muscles of upper limb due to traction injury to brachial plexus mostly during birth. Severity of symptom is based on level of injury. It is also sometimes called brachial plexus palsy. The mode of injury is mostly traction of head and neck at the side when the shoulders are passing through the birth canal during labor in head first delivery. But can also occur due to forceps delivery injury or vacuum extraction injury, breech presentation or when pulling the arm forcefully after birth. In case of mild and moderate level injury this condition improves in time, but some kids can have permanent complications if left untreated. Here an infant with of Erb’s palsy during birth and effect of early intervention on that infant is presented. The location of injury is the point where C5 and C6 form the upper trunk which is also known as Erb’s point. The nerves affected are, supra scapular nerve (C5, 6), axillary nerve (C5, 6) and musculocutaneous nerve (C5, 6, 7). Muscles affected are from proximal supraspinatus, infraspinatus, serratus anterior, deltoid, biceps and brachialis. Thus this condition affects shoulder external rotation, abduction flexion and elbow flexion and supination. Due to opposite muscle pulling the arm will end up in adduction, internal rotation elbow extension and forearm pronation. This position is classically known as waiters tip position or policeman tip hand. It is important to understand the anatomy for diagnosis and proper management. With proper intervention many children can attain normal or near normal functions by 6 to 7 months of age but the injury can take up to 2 years to recover fully.

Keywords: Erb’s Palsy; Erb’s Point; Upper Trunk; Waiters Tip Position; Early Intervention

References

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Citation

Citation: Mythili Kasthurirengan. “Effect of Early Intervention in an Infant with Erb’s Palsy".Acta Scientific Orthopaedics 5.4 (2022): 49-52.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Mythili Kasthurirengan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.