Rare case of the fracture of the lateral border of the scapula associated with lesion of the brachial plexus: a case report
Abdellatif Benabbouha, Adil Lamkhanter
Corresponding author: Abdellatif Benabbouha, Service de Chirurgie Orthopédique et Traumatologique I, Hôpital Militaire d’Instruction Mohamed V, Rabat, Maroc
Received: 06 Mar 2016 - Accepted: 26 Apr 2016 - Published: 28 Apr 2016
Domain: Clinical medicine
Keywords: Scapula, fracture, injury, brachial plexus
©Abdellatif Benabbouha et al. Pan African Medical Journal (ISSN: 1937-8688). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Cite this article: Abdellatif Benabbouha et al. Rare case of the fracture of the lateral border of the scapula associated with lesion of the brachial plexus: a case report. Pan African Medical Journal. 2016;23:249. [doi: 10.11604/pamj.2016.23.249.9277]
Available online at: https://www.panafrican-med-journal.com//content/article/23/249/full
Original article
Rare case of the fracture of the lateral border of the scapula associated with lesion of the brachial plexus: a case report
Rare case of the fracture of the lateral border of the scapula associated with lesion of the brachial plexus: a case report
Abdellatif Benabbouha1,&, Adil Lamkhanter1
1Service de Chirurgie Orthopédique et Traumatologique I, Hôpital Militaire d’Instruction Mohamed V, Rabat, Maroc
&Corresponding author
Abdellatif Benabbouha, Service de Chirurgie Orthopédique et Traumatologique I, Hôpital Militaire d’Instruction Mohamed V, Rabat, Maroc
Scapular fractures are considered a very unusual injury, among studies in adults they account for 1-3% of all fractures, and 5% of fractures involving the shoulder, because the anatomic location and the soft tissues protect the scapula. Consequently, they are usually caused by high-energy vesicular trauma or by falling from a height.Conservative treatment commonly produces good or excellent results.We report a very rare case of a fracture of the lateral border of the scapula associated with lesion of the brachial plexus. A 38-year-old man injured his left shoulder in a traffic accident.In his physical examination, there was a deficit partial nervous of the brachial plexus. The X-ray examination revealed a displaced fracture of the lateral border of the scapula.A computed tomography scan with 3D reconstruction confirmed the diagnosis. Electromyographicexamination two weeks after the injury showed a compression of the brachial plexus. The fracture was treated conservatively. By 4 months after the injury there was further improvement in both sensory and motor function, and by 8 months there was sensation in the autonomous zones of both median and ulnar nerves and good return of muscle power.
Figure 1: A) radiograph of the left shoulder demonstrating fracture of the lateral border of the scapula; B and C) tomography scan with 3D reconstruction confirmed the diagnosis