Traumatic forequarter amputation is an extremely rare and life-threatening injury. It is caused by blunt trauma or tremendous traction force, and the prognosis is very poor because of the involvement of massive associated injury. Traumatic forequarter amputation has been rarely reported in the English language clinical literature, but has never been reported in Korea. We report a case of traumatic forequarter amputation caused by a conveyor belt that was treated with emergency resuscitation and surgery, with an accompanying review of the literature.
Amputation ; Emergencies ; Korea ; Prognosis ; Resuscitation ; Traction

Isolated acromial fracture is not common and it frequently accompanies fractures to the coracoid process and glenoid bone and also injuries to the acromioclavicular joint. Furthermore, most of these combined acromial fractures have minimal displacement, which needs no additional treatment other than protection for a certain period of time. We have experienced a case of isolated fracture of the posterolateral angle of the acromion, which we reduced and fixated using K-wire and cannulated screws. We report on the technical aspects and clinical results of this reduction and fixation, along with a review of the literature.
Acromioclavicular Joint ; Acromion ; Displacement (Psychology)

Tuberculous arthritis on the sternoclavicular joint is an uncommon disease and a delayed diagnosis can be due to the obscure clinical symptoms. We should suspect tuberculous arthritis in patients with slowly progressive pain, swelling, mild fever and a previous history of tuberculosis. Early diagnosis is important through conducting a thorough physical examination and performing laboratory tests and radiologic study. Tuberculous arthritis on the sternoclavicular joint should be treated with a combination of systemic antituberculous agents and thorough surgical debridement in marked damaged joints. When performing this operation, it is important not only to minimized the injury of the costoclavicular ligament, but also to avoid injury to the surrounding the vital structures such as the mediastinum and pleura after aggressive resection or radical debridement. We describe here 2 cases of the tuberculous arthritis on the sternoclavicular joint: one case had a good result after surgical debridement with using an anti-tuberculous agent, and the other had fatal complications such as mediastinal abscess and pleural effusion after the operation.
Abscess ; Arthritis ; Debridement ; Delayed Diagnosis ; Early Diagnosis ; Fever ; Humans ; Joints ; Ligaments ; Mediastinum ; Physical Examination ; Pleura ; Pleural Effusion ; Sternoclavicular Joint ; Tuberculosis

Periarticular cysts in the shoulder joint are relatively rare. The most common are paralabral cysts, which can cause suprascapular nerve entrapment syndrome. Acromioclavicular juxtaarticular cysts have been described in association with full-thickness rotator cuff tears and a degenerated acromioclavicular joint. Intramuscular cysts of the rotator cuff are a relatively rare and unknown type of periarticular cyst. We report a case of an intramuscular cyst of the rotator cuff that was associated with a tear of the rotator cuff.
Acromioclavicular Joint ; Nerve Compression Syndromes ; Rotator Cuff ; Shoulder Joint

PURPOSE: This study examined the outcomes of reconstruction of the coracoclavicular ligaments with using two suture anchors and performing coracoacromial ligament transfer in patients with acromioclavicular dislocation. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Forty patients with complete acromioclavicular dislocation were included in this study. According to the preoperative radiographs, 5 patients with AC dislocations were diagnosed as type III, 4 patients as type IV and 31 patients as type V. Two 3.5mm suture anchors with four strands of nonabsorbable sutures were separately placed on the anterolateral and posteromedial portion of the base of the coracoid process to stabilize the distal clavicle. The coracoacromial ligament was then transferred to the undersurface of the distal end of the clavicle for augmentation. RESULTS: At a mean follow-up of 28 months, the average Constant score improved to 97 points. All the patients returned to normal life at an average of 3.2 months postoperatively. At the last follow-up, 37 patients achieved anatomical reduction and three patients showed complete redislocation. However, the clinical results of the patients with redislocation were satisfactory. CONCLUSION: Anatomical coracoclavicular reconstruction using two suture anchors and coracoacromial ligament transfer for treating complete acromioclavicular dislocation is a safe, effective procedure for restoring a physiologically stable acromioclavicular joint.
Clavicle ; Dislocations ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Ligaments ; Suture Anchors ; Sutures

PURPOSE: To review the clinical and radiological results after an open reduction and internal fixation with a T-shaped LCP for unstable distal clavicle fractures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From February 2005 to June 2006, ten patients with distal clavicle Neer type II fractures were treated with an open reduction and internal fixation with a T-shaped LCP. Bony union was identified by plain radiography. The clinical results were analyzed according to the UCLA scoring system. RESULTS: The mean time to fracture union was 9weeks and union was achieved in all cases. The mean UCLA score was 33.4 (30-35); excellent in 8 cases and good in 2 cases. In one case, loosening of one distal screw was occured and mild AC joint subluxation was observed in another case. CONCLUSION: 3.5 mm T-shaped LCP fixation is a useful technique for treating unstable distal clavicle fractures. This procedure provide stable fixation with no further AC joint injury.
Clavicle ; Humans ; Joints

PURPOSE: We wanted to evaluate the normal glenoid size of Koreans in their 7th and 8th decades by conducting Computed tomographic (CT) studies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The CT images were obtained from the normal scapulae of the patients (mean age: 68.8) who had humeral fracture. A display workstation version 2.0.73.315 was used to measure the scans to determine the maximal superoinferior (SI) and anteroposterior (AP) diameters of the glenoid vault. RESULTS: The average diameters of curvature of the glenoid were 31.2 mm (range: 27 to 34 mm) in the superior-inferior direction and 26.1mm (range: 22 to 31mm) in the anterior-posterior direction. CONCLUSION: This study showed the normal glenoid size of Koreans and it is different from the size that the international literature reported. It should be an important factor for the treatment of fracture or in designing arthroplasty implants.
Arthroplasty ; Humans ; Humeral Fractures ; Scapula ; Shoulder

Kimura's Disease is a very rare, chronic inflammatory disorder with an unknown etiology, and this illness is primarily seen in young Asian males. The typical clinical features consist of painless subcutaneous masses in the head or neck region, and especially in the salivary gland and submandibular region. It is often accompanied with a regional lymphadenopathy, peripheral blood eosinophilia and elevated serum IgE levels. Histologically, it is characterized by prominent germinal centers in the involved lymph nodes, together with eosinophilic infiltration in these lymph nodes. The treatment modalities for this disease are steroid therapy, radiation therapy and surgical excision. Its clinical course is of a benign nature. We report here on a case of a 28 year old man who had a soft tissue mass in his left arm. We excised this mass and the microscopy confirmed that he suffered from Kimura's disease on microscopic examination in his left distal arm.
Arm ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Eosinophilia ; Eosinophils ; Germinal Center ; Head ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin E ; Lymph Nodes ; Lymphatic Diseases ; Male ; Microscopy ; Neck ; Salivary Glands

Authors report a case of cystic tuberculosis of left olecranon in a 44 year-old woman, which mimicked the bone tumor at initial presentation. She complained mild discomfort in the left elbow over a month. On examination there were no local redness, swelling, tenderness and deformity. There was no limitation of left elbow motion. After open curettage of the lesion, bone tuberculosis was confirmed by histological study. Postoperative triple chemotherapy of 12 months (Rifamcpicin, ethambutal, INH) could cure the disease.
Congenital Abnormalities ; Curettage ; Elbow ; Female ; Humans ; Olecranon Process ; Tuberculosis ; Tuberculosis, Osteoarticular

Sternoclavicular septic arthritis is a rare condition and it is usually related to predisposing conditions like intravenous drug abuse, diabetic mellitus, trauma and so on. A delayed diagnosis of this disease may cause severe complications like mediastinitis and chest wall abscess. Computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging is needed to evaluate the complications. If the above complications are present, then joint resection should be considered. We report here on a case of a 52-year-old man who was diagnosed with primary sternoclavicular septic arthritis and he had no predisposing conditions. The pathogen on the aspiration-culture was S. aureus and it was susceptible to cefminox. The patient was cured with administering only antibiotic therapy for 6 weeks; intravenous cefminox therapy for 4 weeks followed by oral cefminox therapy for 2 weeks.
Abscess ; Arthritis, Infectious ; Cephamycins ; Delayed Diagnosis ; Humans ; Joints ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Mediastinitis ; Middle Aged ; Sternoclavicular Joint ; Substance Abuse, Intravenous ; Thoracic Wall