Fifteen clinical cases were examined, consisting of axillary nerve injuries (4), suprascapular nerve injury (1), associated nerve injuries with axillary and suprascapular (6) and accessory nerve injuries (4). Surgical exploration were performed in 14 cases. The axillary nerve was lacerated at the medial edge of the surgical neck of the humerus in 6 out of 8 cases. In 4 of these cases an interpositional nerve graft was placed through two simultaneous approaches, anterior and posterior. The suprascapular nerves were injured at the infraclavicular fossa in 4 cases. Paralytic inferior subluxation was found in only one case with lacerations of both nerves. The preoperative range of shoulder abduction of the cases with axillary nerve laceration alone showed a tendency to increase, in spite of complete paralysis of the deltoid muscle as the time after nerve injury progressed. Preoperative range of motion of the shoulder in the accessory nerve injuries showed a constant range from 155 to 120degrees in flexion and from 80 to 60 in abduction. Dynamic X-ray analysis in these cases revealed that the scapular position deviated anteriorly and laterally and the range of scapular rotation during abduction, from 60 to 80 degrees, was large on the paralytic side compared with the sound side. Good functional recovery was obtained about one year after accessory nerve repair in three cases.
