Where are you considering having this procedure performed? Who's the recommended surgeon?

I'm not sure why that's relevant, but it's a major University Hospital and it's the head of the Neurosurgery Dept. to whom I have been referred.

As an informed consumer, I'd suggest that you look into the doctor's treatment history and check out whether or not any formal complaints have been made about her/him before investing in such a procedure. This is why I'm interested in knowing more about the surgeon.

Also, what's the name of the nerve which is to be replaced? I'll need this information in order to research the prognosis and help answer your question.

That's a good idea, thank you. The damaged nerve is the C5 nerve root. I know one of the muscles effected is the deltoid, and I think some of the others are the supraspinatus and the ultraspinatus...don't know the rest of them. From what I have learned in my attempt to research the surgery, the procedure would probably try to reinnervate the deltoid muscle and one other. That's all I know right now.

Cool. I found a blogging group and two case reports ... will keep digging!

http://peripheralnervesurgery.blogspot.com /2007/02/nerve-transfer-to-deltoid-muscle- using.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1727559 7?dopt=AbstractPlus
http://journalreview.org/v2/articles/view/ 17275597.html

Try searching with the keywords: nerve transfer surgery deltoid success

Thanks for the info... I went to the sites you referenced, but it's pretty hard to get much out of them....too technical for my non medically trained brain! Please let me know if you find anything written in plain english....I haven't yet. I appreciate your efforts.