Not only long thoracic nerve palsy but also accessory nerve palsy cause winging of the scapula. We treated 9 patients with thoracic nerve palsy and 8 patients with accessory nerve palsy. Winging of the scapula was accentuated by forward flexion of the arm in long thoracic nerve palsy, and by lateral flexion of the arm in accessory nerve palsy. The majority of patients with long thoracic nerve palsy was caused by neuralgic amyotrophy. All of these patients were treated by conservative treatment. Functional recovery was good and operative treatment was not necessary. Accessory nerve palsy was mainly caused by the iatrogenic, e. g. radical neck dissection or lymph node biopsy. 4 patients were treated by conservative treatment, while the remaining 4 patients were treated by operative treatment. 3 of these patients showed improvement.
