SUPRACLAVICULAR SUBCUTANEOUS LESIONS OF THE BRACHIAL PLEXUS NOT ASSOCIATED WITH SKELETAL INJURIES: WITH THE REPORT OF A CASE OF AVULSION OF THE ANTERIOR AND POSTERIOR SPINAL ROOTS

Avulsion or rupture of the brachial plexus is not a common accident. Bowlby 1 was was able to collect reports of but nineteen cases, and from that time to 1902, Bristow 2 was able to find by correspondence with a number of active surgeons and from the files of literature but three more. A large majority of these cases were due to indirect violence and were associated with some injury to the skeleton, the more common being dislocation of the shoulder, and fracture of the clavicle and humerus. Avulsion of the plexus without injury to the skeleton had been observed up to 1907, according to Kalb, 3 only four times; from a more exhaustive investigation of the literature, from 1873 up to the present time, we have been able to collect altogether twenty-one cases of rupture of the brachial plexus, partial of complete, all without skeletal injuries in which the