BPP typically presents with paresis, numbness, and paresthesias of the upper extremity after carrying a heavy backpack. The painless motor weakness most severely affects the shoulder girdle and elbow flexors.
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The condition was first described in 1969 in Vietnam soldiers. 8 The brachial plexus is injured by the weight of the backpack due to direct compression or stretch of the nerve tissue leading to demyelination, with or without axonal injury.
Recovery Time and TreatmentIn both cases however full recovery will likely take 6 – 12 months and this time period will depend on the degree of initial nerve damage.
This type of paralysis can occur when a backpack overloads our shoulder girdle, causing the shoulder blades to sag down dragging the collarbones with them. The collarbones will then compress the delicate long thoracic nerve against our rib cage and it is this nerve compression which causes the paralysis.