Eighteen cases of Sprengel deformity in sixteen patients were treated by
the same surgeon. The operation was a modification of Green's procedure;
all muscular attachments to the scapula are freed, the omovertebral band is
cut, and the scapula is sutured into a pocket in the latissimus dorsi after
the scapula has been rotated and moved caudad to a more normal position. No
spring or wire traction is employed. The ages of the patients at operation
ranged from twenty months to five years and ten months. The duration of
follow-up ranged from three years to fourteen years and three months. In
eleven of the fifteen patients who were available for follow-up, there was
a moderate or dramatic improvement in appearance postoperatively.
Preoperatively, the total abduction of the shoulder averaged 91 degrees
(range, 60 to 120 degrees), and postoperatively, the abduction averaged 148
degrees. A radiographic geometric method was devised to quantitate lowering
and derotation of the scapula. The lowering did not change appreciably with
time. The original malrotation of the scapula was corrected initially but
usually recurred after two years; however, this did not compromise the
large increase in abduction postoperatively.