Movement of the shoulder after resection of a tumor of the scapula.

Forty-seven patients who had a tumor of the scapula were seen by the Bone Tumour Panel at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore, Middlesex, England. Sixteen resections were performed in fourteen patients. Although other authors have discussed the length of survival of one or a few such patients, none, to our knowledge, has reported on postoperative movement of the shoulder. We correlated the type of resection of bone and muscle with the restrictions of postoperative movement. Our patients had an excellent range of postoperative movement, even after subradical resection. The study enabled us to make recommendations for reconstruction of muscle after resection and to determine the functional prognosis.