Neuropathic pain due to brachial plexus on the right arm

[lex_soo]

My grandmother had brachial plexus injury on her right arm/hand and she is on Neurontin 300mg X 4 and Amitriptyline 25mg as pain reliever. Lately this treatment is no longer effective and her pain is worse than before.

My question is, are there any other form of medication or treatment that can relieve her neuropathy pain? It is real hard for us, her family member to see her in pain and when she cries and howl. It is really a painful sight. We have tried all the breathing technique and all the medication prescribed by the doctors but the condition is not improving but the pain is getting worse each and not showing any sign of improvement. Appreciate your reply and thank you so much.

[CCF-Neuro-M.D.-PW]

I cannot make a clinical diagnosis of your grandmothers pain over the internet, but it is important to exclude any other cause of pain in the arm that may be predisposed on the brachial plexus injury. A benign static brachial plexus injury should not cause significant pain, unless the cause is neuralgic amyotrophy - an idiopathic neuritis that causes periodic pain and dysfunction of nerves in teh arm. Trauma could also result in a lot of pain, but I do not know what the cause of teh injury is.
So, perhaps reexamination or reimaging of her arm might reveal or exclude for example a fracture, progressiev neuritis, a mass , muscle spasm etc.
Other pain medications are available for neuropathic pain including Trileptal, Lamotragine, and a new one just on the market called Pregabalin. Other ways to reduce pain depend on the cause ie Botox for muscle spasm, Local nerve root injections for nerve root pain, and topical anesthetic like Capsaicin for superficial pain. For severe intractable pain, medications like methadone may be necessary.

[Char1938]

A related discussion, Is this plexopathy was started.