Reverse Diaphragm Paralysis with our Phrenic Nerve Program

Approximately 40 percent and growing. Each case requires a lot of time. In addition to the actual procedure, there is extensive pre-surgery preparation since most of the patients are from out of town. There’s a tremendous amount of time that goes into preparing each one. To fly across the country, or from someplace else in the world, and have a unique surgery requires careful planning to maximize a successful outcome.

It’s probably more common than most people think, but hard to know. For example, what percentage of those with this problem are finding us at The Institute for Advanced Reconstruction?

I think there are some standard causes. If you break it down into broad categories you have a surgical injury (i.e. damage to the nerve while being operated on for other causes), an anesthetic injury (e.g. inadvertent phrenic nerve damage by a needle passed into the neck), a manipulation injury (e.g. chiropractic), or some type of trauma (such as a fall from a horse, a car accident, or even a freak event such as twisting the wrong way).

Age is a big factor for recovery; young patients regenerate better than older ones. Among our patients, the 25-50-year-olds do much better than the 60-70+-year-olds in terms of recovery.

Two-thirds to three-four of the patients are men. Men have more injuries in general—so they undergo more surgery, as well as chiropractic, and more likely to get injured from it. Secondly, men are usually bigger and heavier—so if the neck and (big, heavy) arm twist, there is potentially more damage.

Idiopathic Diaphragm Paralysis is the diagnosis applied when the cause of the diaphragm (breathing) paralysis is not known. For example, if there is no obvious acute trauma to the neck or chest, and there has not been any procedure or intervention that may have inadvertently caused a phrenic nerve injury.

Idiopathic Diaphragm Paralysis has traditionally been thought to occur from a “mystery” virus (often termed Parsonage-Turner syndrome or viral neuritis), however from our vast experience in evaluating thousands, and treating hundreds of patients over the last fifteen years, we have clearly identified that most cases of Idiopathic Diaphragm Paralysis are actually a result of chronic peripheral nerve compression in the neck region.
Chronic nerve compression of the peripheral cervical roots and phrenic nerve is a kind of “wear and tear” phenomenon, likely related to a cumulative impact of past “mini-traumas.” Examples could include contact sports, work-related damage (e.g. manual laborers, tech-neck) or exercise injuries. Unfortunately, there is no way to accurately identify compression of these small nerve structures on an MRI. However, we do rely on cervical MRI to eliminate the possibility of spinal cord compression. We also perform complete diagnostic testing to rule out the possibility of a viral cause or a generalized neurological disorder (e.g. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease).

In many cases, yes. At The Institute for Advanced Reconstruction, we have pioneered phrenic nerve reconstruction for the treatment of diaphragm paralysis. We have the world’s greatest experience in this procedure to restore functional movement to the diaphragm, including successfully treating many patients with presumed “Idiopathic Diaphragm Paralysis.”

Each patient is required to go through the necessary diagnostic testing to determine if they would be a surgical candidate.