Purpose:

To determine the efficacy of surgical treatment by radial nerve transfer in patients with a diagnosis of isolated axillary nerve traumatic injury.

Material and methods:

We present a series of seven cases, six men and one woman, with a mean age of 51.6 years, with a diagnosis of isolated traumatic axillary nerve injury between January 2013 and December 2016. All patients were treated by radial motor branch nerve transfer of the medial triceps head between the sixth and seventeenth months after trauma, with a minimum follow-up of 12 months. The efficacy of the treatment was evaluated by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the DASH questionnaire.

Results:

In the bivariate analysis we found statistically significant differences regarding the degree of external rotation and abduction strength measured by preoperative and postoperative MRC (p < 0.05). The results also demonstrated a statistical significance in the range of postoperative shoulder abduction movement (p = 0.01). The DASH questionnaire showed an average percentage of disability of 20.29% after 12 months of follow-up.

Conclusion:

Radial nerve transfer in patients diagnosed with axillary nerve traumatic injury provides an excellent degree of improvement in external rotation and abduction strength, in addition to significantly improving the shoulder abduction range, it was also demonstrated by DASH questionnaire that the percentage disability is low.