Abstract
Neuralgic amyotrophia of the brachial plexus most often starts with acute pain in the shoulder area, the cervical vertebrae or arm and only later does muscular impairment develop. Both the pain and the muscular impairment arise from the affliction of various areas of the brachial plexus.
We focused on a group of five patients in whom we confirmed the given diagnosis and who also underwent rehabilitation and pharmacological treatment. In this group of patients, we focused on the initial stage of the illness and we evaluated the first diagnostic conclusion, the localisation of the pain, the duration of the pain, the interval between the emergence of the pain and the development of the motor deficit as well as the character of the muscular impairment.
In all cases, the initial pain was at first erroneously considered either affection of the shoulder joint or a vertebrogenic disorder, while the correct diagnosis was only established later. All patients were treated with analgesics, but there was also physical therapy, ineffectual in the first stage of the illness.