[Suprascapular nerve entrapment. A case report].

We present a case of a 35 year-old man, an office employee, who got ill when working hard building his own house. At the same time shoulder pain and fever occurred, the latter due to the tooth apical abscess. Several months later atrophy of the left supraspinatus and infraspinatus muscles was found. The imaging study (MRI, USG) did not show changes which might affect the suprascapular nerve. Electromyography of the left infraspinatus and supraspinatus muscles revealed fibrillation and positive sharp waves. Distal motor latency to the infraspinatus and supraspinatus muscles, examined by electroneurography, was normal. Mechanical irritation of the spinoglenoid notch is only one of possible mechanisms of the suprascpular nerve impairment in this case. The second is the inflammatory process. Suprascapular nerve impairment does not play an important role in pathogenesis of shoulder pain, but probably it is taken too rarely into consideration in differential diagnosis of shoulder pain.