iPluto Mission Statement

It is difficult to assess from the available literature optimal treatment strategies for children with a neonatal brachial plexus palsy (or ‘obstetric brachial plexus lesion’). Comparison of outcome data from different centers is currently virtually impossible because many different outcome measures are reported with different follow-up and at different patient ages.

At the 2016 Narakas meeting in Barcelona, we initiated the iPLUTO project, international PLexus oUtcome sTudy grOup.

The goal of the iPLUTO studygroup is to define a universal dataset to evaluate upper limb function of children with a neonatal brachial plexus palsy. When clinicians prospectively assess function with these datasets, comparison of published results will be possible. In the future, pooling of results may enable multicenter studies, but this is not the scope of the current project. It is not the intention of the project to set specific treatment guidelines or to interfere with current treatment policies, but only to create an international standard how to evaluate and express results of treatment. This alone would be a major step forward.