Bilateral anterior dislocation of the shoulders at the start of a backstroke competition

Abstract

Bilateral anterior dislocation of the shoulders is very rare. A 20-year-old man presented with bilateral anterior shoulder dislocation as a result of a diving incident. He complained of pain and restriction of movement in both shoulders with abducted and externally rotated arms. Radiographs revealed that the shoulders were dislocated. The patient was treated with closed reduction and was able to resume swimming 3 months later. To our knowledge, this is the first bilateral anterior dislocation of the shoulders during a backstroke swimming competition that was caused by this mechanism of injury. The rarity of this lesion and its uncommon mechanism prompted us to relate this observation.

Bilateral Anterior Shoulder Dislocation Due to Seizure in a Twenty-One Year-Old Man

“…The mechanism of injury involves forceful abduction, extension, and external rotation. It could happen due to direct hit to shoulder or sudden powerful contraction of shoulder muscles (6). When the shoulder extends and abducts, the greater tuberosity is impinged on the acromion and pushes humeral head out of the glenoid.…”

“…Other literatures report different causes such as drug overdose, neuromuscular disorders, and sport injuries. It is not recommended to rely on the clinical findings for accurate diagnosis, and radiologic evaluation is usually recommended (6). Orthopedic lesions due to seizure are often neglected due to lack of trauma.…”

“…Most case reports of bilateral shoulder dislocations were posterior dislocation. Some of bilateral dislocations accompanied fracture (6). Greater tuberosity fracture happens in 15% of the anterior dislocations and indicates an associated rotator cuff tear (4).…”

Bilateral Anterior Dislocation of Shoulder

“…Most were due to trauma but sports injuries, seizures, electrical shock, neuromuscular and psychiatric disturbances have been implicated as causative factors. (5,6) Loss of control in water skiing, (7) forceful diving in water, (8) bench press injury (9) weight lifting (10,11) and domestic fall (12) have also been reported to be responsible for bilateral anterior dislocation of shoulder. Aufranc reported the first bilateral anterior dislocation of shoulder following seizure.…”

Simple bilateral anterior shoulder dislocation: A case report and review of the literature

“…[23][24][25][26][27] In three cases of bilateral simple anterior shoulder dislocation aetiology was unknown. [28][29][30] Shoulder dislocation is said to be chronic when it remains unreduced beyond three weeks.…”