Friday, September 6, 2013

Degenerative joint disease - osteoarthritis - of the shoulder, x-ray appearance

As we've emphasized before (see here), two plain x-rays are necessary and sufficient to make most diagnoses of shoulder arthritis.

Here is an anteroposterior (AP) and an axillary view typical of shoulders with degenerative joint disease or osteoarthritis.

The upper view, the AP shows slight joint space narrowing, osteophyte formation and sclerosis.
The standardized axillary view reveals much more of the pathology: no joint space between the humeral head and humeral head of the abducted arm, posterior displacement of the humeral head on the glenoid, and posterior glenoid erosion.
You can support cutting edge shoulder research that is leading to better care for patients with shoulder problems, click on this link.

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Here are some videos that are of shoulder interest
Shoulder arthritis - what you need to know (see this link).
How to x-ray the shoulder (see this link).
The ream and run procedure (see this link).
The total shoulder arthroplasty (see this link).
The cuff tear arthropathy arthroplasty (see this link).
The reverse total shoulder arthroplasty (see this link).
The smooth and move procedure for irreparable rotator cuff tears (see this link).
Shoulder rehabilitation exercises (see this link)