Jennifer Gonzalez

Rehab careers
1st period
November 1, 2016
Crutch Palsy Assignment Essay
Crutch paralysis is a pressure that affects the radical nerve at the axillary caused by
compression, which occurs because of improper use or fitting of the crutches. It could cause any
innervation by radial nerve to become partially or fully paralyzed. It originates from the the
posterior cord. Its the third most common type of compression neuropathy syndrome of the
peripheral nerves. Crutch palsy has a couple different signs and symptoms, cases, and who in a
rehabilitation center is responsible for teaching you how to use crutch palsy correctly.
Crutch Palsy has several different symptoms like abnormal sensations including
the hand or forearm (back of the hand), thumb side fingers nearest to the thumb, having difficulty
straightening the arm at the elbow or bending the hand back at the wrist/ holding the hand,
numbness, decreased sensation, tingling, or burning sensation (pain). If you were to get an exam
they would check your arm, hand, and wrist. Could result in muscle loss. Test that could be
probably needed; blood test, EMG, nerve conduction tests, and ultrasound of the elbow. If the
nerve dysfunction is found, then theres a good chance that you will fully recover. Partial or
complete loss of movement of sensation. Sometimes pain could last for a long time, if this were
to occur you would need to access to all pain treatment options. Complications would be
different for every person defending on how bad the radial nerve compression was. You could
lose complete feeling in the hand, mild or severe deformity of the hand are some examples.

For example, in the case with a 56-year-old male who was treated for arthrodesis
meaning his had no movement in his joint. After, a few weeks he had trouble moving and noticed
numbness and weakness of his hands and wrist. He went to the emergency room the next date to
seek treatment. He ended up needing physical and occupational therapy for 5 days/week for 24
days. He started out with a walker because they didnt want him to further compress of radial
nerve at the axilla and then move on to the crutches. The exercises focused on upper extremity
passive range of motion, active range of motion, active assistive range of motion. EMG
performed 5 weeks after initial presentation showed no evidence of radial neuropathy by nerve
conduction study. Finally, after 10 weeks, he had full recovered of radial nerve function.
Finally, a physical therapist would be responsible for preventing crutch palsy. Since they
are the ones to teach them how to properly use them. Three interventions that you would take to
prevent crutch palsy in a rehabilitation patient would be to teach them exactly how to walk with
the crutches. How many inches they should under you axially, they should be 2 inches or 3
fingers should be able to fit there. The crutches should be 6-10 inches outwards away from you.
Sometimes depending on the solution you would have to have a belt around them so you
can hold them in case they fall you are able to catch them. Tell them step by step the movement
they need to do and how to actually do it without hurting themselves in any way. They need to
try and not put too much weight on their bad side because that will only make it worse.
In conclusion, patients need to follow these rules so they dont end up with crutch palsy
because it could really affect them in the future more than anything. With losing feelings in your
axially and hands since you are compressing your nerves. This is one of the most common ways
that people end up hurting themselves because they dont know how to properly use the crutches.
So make sure to know how tall they need to be and and how far away to have them from you.

Citations:

Subject, By. "Bilateral Radial Nerve Compression (crutch Palsy): A Case Report."

OMICS International. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2016.

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/crutch+palsy