Sprengel deformity

Abstract

Eighteen cases of Sprengel deformity in sixteen patients were treated by the same surgeon. The operation was a modification of Green's procedure; all muscular attachments to the scapula are freed, the omovertebral band is cut, and the scapula is sutured into a pocket in the latissimus dorsi after the scapula has been rotated and moved caudad to a more normal position. No spring or wire traction is employed. The ages of the patients at operation ranged from twenty months to five years and ten months. The duration of follow-up ranged from three years to fourteen years and three months. In eleven of the fifteen patients who were available for follow-up, there was a moderate or dramatic improvement in appearance postoperatively. Preoperatively, the total abduction of the shoulder averaged 91 degrees (range, 60 to 120 degrees), and postoperatively, the abduction averaged 148 degrees. A radiographic geometric method was devised to quantitate lowering and derotation of the scapula. The lowering did not change appreciably with time. The original malrotation of the scapula was corrected initially but usually recurred after two years; however, this did not compromise the large increase in abduction postoperatively.