Audience: Medical students in pre-medical school.
Though the cause is unclear, many researchers and physicians agree that .
surgical procedures and immunizations are possible causes of brachial neuritis. .
Those who are diagnosed with brachial neuritis, depending on the severity of the .
disorder will have available different medications and alternative treatments used .
to help combat this disorder. .
What is brachial neuritis? Brachial neuritis is a condition involving .
decreased movement or sensation in the arm and shoulder caused by impaired .
function of the brachial plexus, a nerve area that affects the arm followed by .
several days of severe pain and discomfort (Health Central 1). The common.
diagnosis of patients with acute brachial plexus neuritis is severe, .
acute, burning pain in the shoulder and upper arm with no apparent cause. On .
occasion, it may awaken the patient from sleep. In the majority of patients, the .
pain subsides over the next few days to weeks, resulting in a weakness .
in the upper arm--at times to the point of muscle flaccidity. The profile .
of initial arm and shoulder pain followed by muscle weakness as the pain subsides .
is an important characteristic of acute brachial plexus neuritis (Miller, Pruitt, and .
McDonald 3). .
The brachial plexus is part of the nervous system that is a channel for the relay of .
sensory and motor impulses between the central nervous system on the one hand .
and the body surface, skeletal muscles, and internal organs on the other hand, and .
is composed of spinal nerves, cranial nerves, and certain parts of the autonomic .
nervous system. The brachial plexus nerve pathways are made up of neurons (that .
is, nerve cell bodies and their axons and dendrites) as well as the points at which .
one neuron communicates with the next (that is, the synapse). The structures .
commonly known as nerves (or by such names as roots, rami, trunks, and .
branches) are actually composed of orderly arrangements of the axonal and .
According to the National Vaccine Information Center, "Brain and nerve disorders such as encephalopathy, optic neuritis, partial facial paralysis, and brachial plexus neuropathy as well as vasculitis have also been reported following the flu vaccine....