Publication At A Glance

Coracoid Abnormalities and Their Relationship with Glenohumeral Deformities in Children with Obstetric Brachial Plexus

Patients with obstetric brachial plexus injury (OBPI) have a nerve injury to the brachial plexus and may also have secondary muscle imbalances and bone deformities.

Much of our research was devoted to studying these shoulder joint (glenohumeral) deformities and we realized that we needed to look more closely at the relationship between the glenohumeral deformities with the coracoid (another important bone near the shoulder joint).

We see that when there is glenohumeral deformity, we will also find a shortened distance between the coracoid and the humeral head, or upper arm bone.

We studied 39 OBPI pediatric patients (ages 2-13) who had these secondary deformities. Using CT scan images, we measured distances and angles for both affected and unaffected shoulders. We found a significant difference between them and concluded that when there was glenohumeral deformity, we would also find coracoid abnormality pertaining to distance, position and overlap. This means that the structures at the front of the shoulder joint (a mixture of ligaments, tendons and other soft tissues) are too tight.

In another paper, we showed how surgery can help to increase the distance between the coracoid and the arm bone, which allows better shoulder joint anatomy and development.