When would you refer patients with Parsonage-Turner syndrome for surgical treatment?

An introduction is required because this is a relatively new concept in the management of neuralgic amyotrophy.

Despite historical data from the '90s suggesting that >80% of Parsonage-Turner (neuralgic amyotrophy/NA) patients will show significant improvement of motor function in two years after the incident, more recent case series have suggested that >30% of patients have rather poor recovery. The rapid technological development and accumulation of knowledge in peripheral nerve imaging techniques (high-resolution US, MR neurography) in the last two decades has led us to realize that in many cases of NA, imaging abnormalities of the affected nerve trunks can be detected with the above methods, ranging from focal swelling to incomplete nerve...