Muscular dystrophy as a cause of unilateral scapular winging

Mitchell J Lycett; Seamus E Dalton; Kishore R Kumar; Karl Ng

doi:10.1111/imj.16522

Muscular dystrophy as a cause of unilateral scapular winging

Intern Med J. 2024 Oct 14. doi: 10.1111/imj.16522. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Mitchell J Lycett^{1

2}, Seamus E Dalton³, Kishore R Kumar^{2

4

5

6}, Karl Ng^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
² Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
³ North Sydney Sports Medicine Centre, North Shore Health Hub, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
⁴ Molecular Medicine Laboratory and Neurology Department, Concord Repatriation General Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
⁵ Translational Neurogenomics Group, Genomic and Inherited Disease Program, The Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
⁶ St Vincent's Healthcare Campus, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

PMID: 39400957
DOI: 10.1111/imj.16522

Abstract

Shoulder weakness with unilateral scapular winging is a common issue that initially presents to the general physician, sports physician or rheumatologist. Although most of these cases are neurogenic in nature, it is important to consider alternative causes for unilateral scapular winging. Muscular dystrophies can present with marked asymmetry, the most typical being facioscapulohumeral dystrophy (FSHD). We describe a case of FSHD with a summary of the key clinical features to increase the awareness of this condition among physicians.

Keywords: Beevor's sign; facioscapulohumeral dystrophy; foot drop; pectoral fold; scapular winging.