How to explain complex Brachial Plexus injuries

To better explain this point, let us digress a bit and go back to some basic concepts. Nerves are basically the electrical wiring in the body. When a nerve gets stretched a variety of changes may occur to its structure; a minor injury may be a temporary “short” to a few nerve fibers within the nerve. If the injury is more severe, there may be complete disruption of the nerve with scarring around the nerve preventing the healing. The nerve fibers around this injury become very disorganized like a tangle of wires and the nerve loses all function.

Another way of thinking about it is each injured nerve root or trunk can be like a car that has been in an accident. It can be as mild as a small fender bender where the car will still work and be repaired, they can be so severe that the car(or nerve) will never work, or anywhere in between those two. The brachial plexus injury may be as minor as a temporary paralysis that completely recovers or it may be so severe that the entire limb is permanently paralyzed.