Outpatient clinic for children with obstetric brachial palsy admitted to a rehabilitation hospital in Brazil: 10 years of experience in a multidisciplinary approach

Introduction/Background: Obstetric brachial palsy (OBP) is characterized by flaccid paralysis secondary to injury to one or more roots of the brachial plexus during laborious labor. Specialized and systematized evaluation by a multidisciplinary team is important in the follow-up of these patients. The authors describe the ten first years of the specialized outpatient clinic in a health institution. Methods: The medical records of all patients admitted with a brachial plexus injury that occurred during delivery at a health institution were evaluated. The children were evaluated using the Active Movement Scale (AMS) and the test score was applied at three months. Patients older than 2 years of age at the time of admission were excluded from the analysis. Results: 454 children with PBO up to 2 years of age were admitted. Of the total, 54% of babies are female. The average age at admission was 4.7 months of age, with 56.4% being admitted at up to 3 months of age. Of the total admitted, 113 children underwent surgery to treat the brachial plexus. Conclusions: Systematized evaluation associated with multidisciplinary monitoring allows a better evolution of the child who presented a brachial plexus injury at birth