Painful gleno-humeral joint instability in athletes. Radiographic findings

Instability of the glenohumeral joint is a common cause of chronic shoulder pain and disability in athletes using repetitive arm movements in elevation and external rotation. A series of 29 athletes with persistent shoulder discomfort for transient subluxation was evaluated with plain radiography and tomography in right axillary projection. The purpose was to detect abnormalities in the osseous glenoid rim. Twenty-six patients (89.6% of all cases studied) had various degrees of skeletal damage, including 18 fractures (69.2%) of the anterior rim, 2 (7.6%) of the posterior rim, and 6 cases (23.07%) of local degenerative changes; 3 cases were negative for skeletal damages. The result of this study demonstrate conventional radiography to be useful in the diagnostic assessment of shoulder pain in athletes, where similar problems must be promptly detected and not ignored.