We studied thirty consecutive patients who previously had a radical
acromionectomy performed elsewhere. All had poor results from the
procedure. Twenty-seven had persistent pain, all had marked weakness of the
shoulder, and none could raise the arm above the horizontal. Eight had had
serious wound complications. All objected to the appearance of the
shoulder. We concluded that radical acromionectomy weakened the deltoid
both by removing its lever arm and by encouraging retraction of the deltoid
muscle became adherent to either the rotator cuff or the humerus, or both,
and soon became fibrotic and permanently shortened. This combination of
factors makes a successful reconstruction of the deltoid mechanism
especially difficult.