The assessing clinician was responsible for performing the history and physical assessment on all prospective participants and for clinically identifying MTrP within the
infraspinatus muscle. The assessing clinician was blinded to participants' group allocation while the treating clinician was not.
Following this, representative sagittal T1-weighted and coronal proton density images of the supraspinatus and
infraspinatus muscles from each study and control group subject were selected, separated, and placed in random order.
The nerve then passes deep to this muscle in the supraspinatus fossa continuing into the spinoglenoid notch and terminates in the
infraspinatus muscle. Cases of suprascapular entrapment neuropathy lead to two different clinical pictures (15).
If stimulation of the
infraspinatus muscle was observed, or the patient reported a pain-free 'knocking' sensation in the shoulder, 15 ml of 0.75% ropivacaine was injected (19,20).
Safran, "High incidence of
infraspinatus muscle atrophy in elite professional female tennis players," American Journal of Sports Medicine, vol.
This patient was diagnosed at the chiropractic college health center with post-traumatic myofascial parascapular trigger points, myofascitis, muscular adhesions and weakness in the right shoulder musculature involving principally the
infraspinatus muscle. He was seen seven times over a 2 month period.
They are usually identified by the distinct combination of muscle bellies involved: Suprascapular nerve entrapment at the suprascapular notch affects the supraspinatus and
infraspinatus muscles; suprascapular nerve entrapment at the level of the spinoglenoid notch (distal to supraspinatus motor innervation) affects only the
infraspinatus muscle; quadrilateral space syndrome (compression of the axillary nerve in the quadrilateral space) usually affects just the teres minor muscle; and ParsonageTurner Syndrome, an acute brachial neuritis, can involve single or multiple nerve distributions (Figure 10).
(2) Investigators assessed 8 physical exam tests--the Neer impingement sign, Hawkins-Kennedy impingement sign, painful arc sign, supraspinatus muscle strength test, Speed's test, cross-body adduction test, drop-arm sign, and
infraspinatus muscle strength test--to determine their diagnostic utility.
The path lies between the
infraspinatus muscle and the teres minor muscle, with the point of entry 1 cm inferior and 2 cm medial to the posterior angle of the acromion.
found that the
infraspinatus muscle is irrigated 81% of the time by the circumflex scapular artery and 94% of the time by the suprascapular artery, forming an anastomotic network between the two arteries.
His pain disappeared over a week and at 6 month follow-up there was gradual improvement in the power of supra and
infraspinatus muscle.
Four patients in our study, all within the 15-30 year age group, presented with a clinical suspicion of cuff pathology, however had imaging findings consistent with edema in the supraspinatus and
infraspinatus muscle bellies, with no evidence of tear / tendinitis, indicating likely suprascapular nerve denervation, which can be labeled a 'clinical mimic' of cuff tears.
