Objective：
4-5 roots brachial plexus injury is a devastating issue. Nowadays, the outcomes evaluation for brachial plexus reconstruction mostly limited in physician-based assessment including muscle power and range of motion of each joint, which is not exactly correlate to patients’ daily demand and use. This study aimed to use accelerometry-based activity monitors and patient-based report for actual real-world usage of the affected arm and feedback after brachial plexus reconstruction.
Materials and Methods:
Totally 28 adult total roots (C5-T1) acute brachial plexus injury patients received nerve-based reconstruction with at least 2 years follow up were included in the study. All of them wore motion detectors bilaterally in waking hours for 7 days. The amount of movement time per day (VT) and the vector magnitude (VM) were collected, and also the objective muscle power, joint range of motion, and the patient-reported outcome were documented for correlation.
Results:
The averaged shoulder abduction was 66.4 ± 36.5 degree, the elbow flexion was 112.7 ± 49.7 degree, and the finger flexion was 13 ± 9 degree. Compared the affected arm to healthy arm (defined as 100%), VT (time of use ratio) was 0.53 ± 0.14 and the VM (magnitude ratio) was 0.32 ± 0.16.
Conclusions:
It is an easy and reliable way to follow the real-world functional outcome after brachial plexus reconstruction by accelerometry-based activity monitor. The records provide the objective improvement in the daily life after the nerve reconstruction.

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