Abstract

Objective: The study was aimed to identify the risk factors for obstetrical brachial plexus palsy (OBPP). Patients and Methods: A retrospectivecase–control study was designed. A comparison was performed between cases of brachial plexus paralysis (n = 32), with controls withoutbrachial plexus paralysis (n = 30) randomly selected from physical rehabilitation medicine examination. Statistical analysis was performedusing the SPSS Package. Results: Independent risk factors for brachial plexus paralysis were macrosomia (birth weight 4000 g; oddsratio [OR] = 12.353; 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.510–60.802, P < 10−3), labor dystocia and instrumental vaginal delivery (forceps deliveryand vacuum extraction; OR = 8.8; 95% CI 2.743–28.234, P < 10−3), and prolonged pregnancy (OR = 1.28; 95% CI 1.066–1.538, P = 0.011);however, vaginal breech delivery (breech presentation or extraction; OR = 3.231; 95% CI 0.598–17.456, P = 0.258), parity (OR = 2.545; 95%CI 0.677–9.565, P = 0.206), shoulder dystocia (OR = 1.957; 95% CI 0.571–6.702, P = 0.367), and after cesarean section (OR = 1.103; 95% CI0.987–1.234, P = 0.238) do not represent any risk factor. Conclusions: In our population (n = 62), macrosomia, labor dystocia, instrumentalvaginal delivery, and prolonged pregnancy were the significant risk factors for neonatal brachial plexus paralysis, while shoulder dystocia,breech deliveries, parity, and cesarean section were not. Despite our small sample, we found three significant risk factors associated with OBPP.

Keywords

The article was added to IASJ on 2021-01-22

74 Total full text downloads since the date of addition