Brachial plexus injuries and their place in history

Brachial plexus injuries have been documented by scientists for thousands of years. In fact, references to them can be traced as far back as Homer's Iliad, believed to written in the 8th or 9th century BC, and Thucydides's History of Peloponnesians.

Yet it was not until the great polymath Leonardo da Vinci produced history's first ever detailed anatomical drawings of the brachial plexus that scientists began to understand the workings of the brachial plexus.

Famous historian H Hopstock comments on the importance of da Vinci's anatomical drawings, "He was the first to give a correct description of the human skeleton of the thorax, the cranium, and its various pneumatic cavities, of the bones extremities, of the vertebral column, of the correct position of the pelvis and the corresponding curvatures of the pelvis. He was the first to give a correct picture of practically all the muscles of the human body."

And nowhere is da Vinci's commitment to anatomical discovery better demonstrated than in his work on the brachial plexus, work which lasted the best part of a decade and yielded the famous drawings that now form part of the Royal Collection.

Despite the considerable skill and accuracy of da Vinci's drawings, it was only in the 18th and 19th centuries that the work of scientists such as Duchenne (1861), Smellie (1868), Erb (1876) and Flaubert (1827) helped the medical sciences begin to understand the nature of obstetric-related brachial plexus injuries.

Yet the kinds of obstetric errors associated with medical negligence and birth injury are not the only cause of lasting damage to the brachial plexus. Motorbike accidents are another significant cause, accounting for as many as 90% of all other injuries to the area. In fact, so prevalent is the injury among riders that many within the NHS refer to it as "The Bikers' Injury".

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Just as there is no substitute for good health, there is no substitute for good service.

While, aside from helping you pay for medical care, we can do little to help you with the former, we can at least provide the latter, giving you the very best chance of receiving personal injury compensation.

So whether you have suffered your brachial plexus injury in a motorbike accident or as the result of an incidence of medical negligence, there will be personal injury solicitors on our UK-leading panel whose specialism will be ideally suited to your circumstances.

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