Philadelphia Erb’s Palsy Attorneys

Erb’s palsy is a birth injury that occurs when nerves that connect the neck to the arms and shoulders become damaged. Erb’s Palsy is also known as brachial plexus birth palsy. The term brachial refers to the arms, while the term plexus is the name for a network of nerves. Erb’s Palsy can affect or paralyze the muscles in the arms, shoulders, or hands. The severity of the symptoms is dependent upon where the injury occurs. Erb’s Palsy is avoidable because of the advances in medical technology, but sometimes can occur as a result of medical malpractice.

Types of Erb’s Palsy

Depending upon where the nerves are affected, a different form of Erb’s Palsy can occur. All of these types of Erb’s Palsy can result in weakness or paralysis.

The following are types of Erb’s Palsy:

• Erb-Duchenne Palsy – Affects the shoulder and elbow muscles and may result in paralysis
• Klumpkes Palsy – Can cause paralysis of the forearm and hand
• Radial Nerve Palsy – Affects the upper arm and radiates down to the wrist and can affect movement of the hand and arm

Symptoms & Treatment of Erb’s Palsy

All types of Erb’s Palsy can cause weakness and may result in paralysis. Some of the common symptoms include:

• Arm may be limp and held against the body
• Infant can’t move arm or hand away from the shoulder
• Weak grip
• Inability to rotate arm
• Complete or partial paralysis
• Loss of sensory function of arm
• Numbness and tingling due to nerve damage
• Muscle atrophy in the arm

When a case of Erb’s Palsy is less severe, treatment may be performed through massage and range of motion exercises. Parental involvement can be pivotal as continuing the treatment from home is important as well. Physical therapy may be done improve flexibility. There can also be treatment performed through electric stimulation.

If the case is severe or if treatment doesn’t show signs of improvement within a few months, then surgery may be performed. These surgeries are usually performed within the first few months of the infant’s life and can, in some cases, repair the nerve damage and any shoulder dislocations or ruptures.

Causes of Erb’s Palsy

The most common cause of Erb’s Palsy is excessive stretching of the infant’s head and neck during delivery. Oftentimes, this is caused as part of shoulder dystocia which occurs when the infant’s shoulders can’t get past the mother’s hip bones. Another cause of Erb’s Palsy can be medical malpractice, where the physician didn’t notice warning signs for shoulder dystocia during birth or even pulled too forcefully on the infant during birth.