UNUSUAL LESIONS OF STERNUM ASSOCIATED WITH SHOULDER PAIN

Abstract

Pain in the shoulder joint may often present a difficult diagnostic problem.¹Abnormalities of the cervical part of the spinal column, lesions within the chest cavity, disease of the coronary arteries, irritation of the diaphragm, neurological lesions, and disease of the gallbladder are among the conditions commonly considered in the differential diagnosis of pain in the shoulder joint or its surrounding structures. Little attention has been paid to lesions of the sternum as a cause of referred pain in the shoulder, possibly because lesions of this bone are relatively uncommon. We have recently seen at Mayo Clinic three cases of sternal lesions, in which the patients' chief complaint, either throughout the illness or at one point during it, was pain in the shoulder. Two of the patients had demonstrable limitation of movement at the shoulder joint; one had paresthesias in the forearm of the affected side. In none of