Spinal Accessory Nerve Transfer for Shoulder Abduction Has No Benefit Over Supraclavicular Explorati...

Brachial plexus birth injury (BPBI) has an incidence of 0.9 per 1000 live births in the population. Techniques for repair classically include supraclavicular exploration and nerve grafting (SENG) and more recently nerve transfer, namely of the spinal accessory nerve (SAN) to the suprascapular nerve (SSN) to improve functional outcomes such as glenohumeral abduction and external rotation. This systematic review was conducted to evaluate whether spinal accessory nerve transfer produced significantly better outcomes for shoulder abduction in BPBI.