Spontaneous brachial plexus hemorrhage-case report.

BACKGROUND: Shoulder hemorrhage resulting in brachial plexus neuropathy is a rare occurrence most often seen in cases of traumatic injury or anticoagulation therapy. We report a unique case of spontaneous brachial plexus hemorrhage. CASE DESCRIPTION: This is the first report of a spontaneous shoulder hemorrhage in which a 48-year-old jackhammer operator presented to the emergency department with a sudden onset of right shoulder pain and upper extremity pain and numbness. Imaging studies revealed a hematoma in the right axilla and chest wall. Without evidence of active bleeding or worsening neurologic deficit, this patient was treated conservatively with pain control and observation and eventually experienced a full recovery. Had there been persistent neurologic deficit, however, surgical evacuation would have been indicated. CONCLUSIONS: Cases of nerve compression caused by a hematoma should be analyzed on the basis of the severity of the neurologic deficit and not on the underlying cause of bleeding. Conservative treatment may be indicated in cases of mild or improving neurologic deficit, but regardless of its etiology, a hematoma that results in severe or worsening neurologic symptoms must be surgically evacuated to prevent permanent nerve damage.

Exposure of hooded capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella cay) to a rabid bat at a zoological park.

On 27 May 1999, a big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) was discovered on an island exhibit at the Denver Zoo that contained a troop of 15 hooded capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella cay). The monkeys were attacking the bat when it was discovered. The bat was collected and humanely euthanatized without direct handling and submitted to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Virology Laboratory for rabies evaluation. The monkeys had not been vaccinated against rabies virus. The next day, the laboratory confirmed that the bat was positive for rabies. The recommendations from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were to euthanatize the monkeys or quarantine them and comply with the human nonvaccinated postexposure protocol. A 1-ml dose of a killed rabies vaccine was administered i.m. in the hip on each of days 2, 7, 12, 19, and 33 postexposure, and a single dose of human rabies immune globulin was administered i.m. 5 days postexposure. Blood was collected under anesthesia in order to evaluate the immune response after rabies vaccination from six monkeys 5 days postexposure, six monkeys 19 days postexposure (five of the six monkeys were the same monkeys bled 5 days postexposure), 15 monkeys 67 days postexposure, and 13 monkeys approximately 1 yr postexposure. All of the monkeys developed and maintained levels of rabies virus neutralizing antibody above 0.05 IU/ml by 67 days postexposure. Although a serologic titer of 0.05 IU/ml indicates an adequate human response after rabies vaccination, no similar information is available for nonhuman primates. To date, none of the monkeys has succumbed to rabies.