Suprascapular nerve entrapment

Fifty-four patients with suprascapular nerve entrapment were evaluated on an average of 5.6 years (range, 2-9 years) after surgical release. There were 32 males and 22 females. Supposed causative factor was exertion at work or vacation in 36 cases. Sixteen patients had an atrophy of the supraspinatus and 26 of the infraspinatus muscle. Conduction time to the supraspinatus muscle was 4.5 ms (range, 2.2-14.4 ms), and to the infraspinatus, 8.6 ms (range, 2.5-43.6 ms). The mean time from the onset of the symptoms to surgery was 2.8 years (range, three months to 14 years). The mean age at operation was 38.4 years (range, ten to 61 years). Two patients were operated on bilaterally within two and four years. All but two patients were operated on at the suprascapular notch. A new cranial approach is advocated. The most dramatic effect of the operation was prompt disappearance of the pain in 24 cases and marked diminishing in 15 cases (72%). At the follow-up evaluation, a moderate atrophy of the supraspinatus muscle was found only in one patient but that of the infraspinatus in 11 patients. There were ten poor long-term results, some of them presumably operated on after wrong diagnoses and some at a wrong region.