Doctors transplant nerves to save teenager's arm in Kazakhstan

Tengrinews.kz - Doctors have successfully transplanted intercostal nerves to restore the function of a teenager's arm. This unique microsurgical operation was performed by trauma orthopedic surgeons from Children's City Clinical Hospital No. 2 in Almaty, in collaboration with Moscow microsurgeon Igor Golubev.

The 15-year-old boy had suffered severe nerve damage in his upper limb. According to his parents, he had been injured about 10 years ago when another child jumped on him in a river, which resulted in a rupture of the brachial plexus in his left arm. The parents consulted many specialists, but the treatment did not help: the teenager's left arm was practically non-functional.

Two years ago, at the clinical hospital, together with microsurgeon Igor Golubev, the teenager underwent the first stage of an operation to transplant a thin thigh muscle to the biceps to restore arm flexion at the elbow.

"We achieved improvement at that time. The next planned stage involved transplanting several intercostal nerves from the left side to the upper third of the left arm, preparing for a subsequent muscle transplant from the other leg to connect to the newly functional nerves, aiming to restore finger extension. The boy's fingers have been permanently bent, preventing him from grasping objects properly. These types of operations are technically complex and time-consuming (nerve relocation takes 3-4 hours, muscle transplant 6-7 hours), so they were divided into two stages," said Ulzhan Soltanbekova, an attending traumatologist.

The teenager's post-operative condition was good, and he was discharged on the eighth day.

In six months, the second stage of the operation is planned: doctors will have to transplant a muscle from the other leg to the extensors of the fingers of the hand.