Suprascapular Neuropathy: An Overview

Suprascapular nerve neuropathy (SNN) which originally appeared in the literature in 1936, and further described by Thompson and Kopell in 1959, until the last decade it was considered as a rare clinical finding. Thus, there is a lack of a sufficient number of studies that focus on the frequency that this aberration is encountered in clinical practice.

The multifactorial nature of the injury, the different root causes as well as its low incidence, make it far from easy to diagnose. However despite its rarity this ailment remains a significant cause of shoulder impairment that should be carefully examined in every case that an inexplicable pain in shoulder area arises.

The purpose of this study is to expedite an overview to describe this interesting phenomenon, to delineate the mechanism of the nerve injury, as well as the means used to confront it and to introduce physical therapy approaches to treat this clinical entity.