Future directions of brachial plexus injuries in contact athletes

We greatly value and appreciate the response to our article “Brachial plexus injuries in the contact athlete: a narrative review” (1). The authors make several comments which do add depth and context to the complex issue of brachial plexus injuries. We certainly look forward to their formal scoping review to address the limitations inherent to a narrative review.

While attempting to provide an overview of these injury mechanisms and their consequences, we agree that oversimplification may lead to misperceptions. The author’s differentiation between compressive vs. traction lesions, neurapraxia vs. neuritis, potential for root involvement, and structural contributions to neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome are well noted and important factors to unpack in future studies.

Again, we thank the authors for their comments and look forward to further discussion and research in this important area going forward.

Acknowledgments

None.

Footnote

Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the Editorial Office, Annals of Joint. The article did not undergo external peer review.

Funding: None.

Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://aoj.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/aoj-2025-1-99/coif). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

References

1. Windmueller RA, Gbayisomore OO, Mead RL, et al. Brachial plexus injuries in the contact athlete: a narrative review. Ann Joint 2025;10:18. [Crossref] [PubMed]