Nerve Transfers for Cervical Spinal Cord Injury
摘要
Nerve transfers have become a powerful intervention to restore upper extremity function following a cervical spinal cord injury. A C5-level injury typically preserves shoulder function along with elbow flexion and supination. We present three nerve transfers utilized to redistribute functional circuitry in a C5-level injury to restore elbow extension (teres minor branch of axillary nerve to long head of triceps branch of radial nerve), hand grasp (brachialis branch of musculocutaneous nerve to anterior interosseous nerve), and hand opening (supinator branches of radial nerve to posterior interosseous nerve).