Shrug radiographs for the diagnosis of long thoracic nerve palsy in traumatic brachial plexus injury.
BACKGROUND
Preoperative diagnosis of long thoracic nerve (LTN) palsy is important for shoulder reconstruction after a traumatic brachial plexus injury (BPI). In the present study, we developed an objective diagnostic method for LTN palsy for patients with traumatic BPI.


METHODS
This is a retrospective review of 56 patients with traumatic BPI who had been receiving treatment at a single institution for over 8 years. The patients were divided into 2 groups: an LTN palsy group (n = 30) and a no palsy control group (n = 26). The LTN palsy group had 21 different palsy types with 4 and 5 C5-7 and C5-8, whereas the no palsy group had 18 different palsy types with 5 and 3 C5-6 and C5-8, respectively. Preoperative plain anteroposterior radiographs were taken in shoulder adduction and shrug positions. Scapulothoracic (ST) upward rotation and clavicle lateral (CL) rotation angles were measured on X-rays. The differences between the adduction and shrug positions for the respective angles were calculated and defined as ΦST and ΦCL, respectively. The differences in the ΦST and ΦCL values due to the presence or absence of LTN palsy were examined, the cutoff values of ΦST and ΦCL for the diagnosis of LTN palsy were determined, and further sensitivity and specificity were calculated.


RESULTS
Both ΦST and ΦCL were significantly decreased in the LTN palsy group compared with the no palsy control group. The sensitivity and specificity for LTN palsy were 0.833 and 1.000 for ΦST and 0.833 and 0.840 for ΦCL, respectively, when the cutoff value was set as ΦST = 15° and ΦCL ≤ 24°.


CONCLUSION
Dynamic shrug radiographs provide a useful objective diagnosis of LTN palsy after traumatic BPI.
['Yukata|Kiminori|K|', 'Doi|Kazuteru|K|', 'Okabayashi|Toshitaka|T|', 'Hattori|Yasunori|Y|', 'Sakamoto|Sotetsu|S|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D000368:Aged D000369:Aged, 80 and over D001917:Brachial Plexus D020516:Brachial Plexus Neuropathies D002648:Child D002968:Clavicle D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D010243:Paralysis D059348:Peripheral Nerve Injuries D012189:Retrospective Studies D013900:Thoracic Nerves D055815:Young Adult
shrug radiograph long thoracic nerve Brachial plexus injury serratus anterior muscle trapezius muscle