Coracoclavicular Joint Research Articles

The role of the coracoclavicular ligaments in affections of the shoulder girdle

One thousand eight hundred Roentgen examinations of the shoulders of patients in the Out-Patient Service at U. S. Marine Hospital, New York, whose chief complaint was pain, were reviewed. Thirty-six patients showed local pathology of the coracoclavicular ligament. Of these, nine patients had a coracoclavicular joint, in five of which the joint was bilateral. The important rôle of the coracoclavicular ligaments play in stabilizing the shoulder girdle, their evolutional and anatomic analogy to the crucial ligaments of the knee joint, are pointed out. The movements of the scapula on the clavicle in each of the three planes and the extent and limits of these movements by the coracoclavicular ligaments are analyzed and illustrated. The important rôle the coracoclavicular ligaments play in sprains of the shoulder is illustrated by case reports. A method for the x-ray demonstration of severe injuries to these ligaments is introduced. A clinico-roentgenologic division of the cases into two major groups is made, and the subgroups are illustrated by case reports. An appeal is made for better evaluation of the importance of the coracoclavicular ligaments in acromioclavicular dislocations. I wish to express my gratitude to Senior Surgeon J. Bolten for his kind coöperation, and to Miss Beatrice James, Winthrop D. Conklin and Hyman Vozick, for their untiring coöperation.