The Prevalence of Os Acromiale in Korean Patients Visiting Shoulder Clinic

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of os acromiale has been documented to be between 1% and 15% and is known to be clinically associated with subacromial impingement or rotator cuff tear. However, the prevalence of os acromiale in Korea has not yet been determined. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of os acromiale in Korean patients who visited shoulder clinics and to investigate the correlations with rotator cuff tear. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the X-rays of patients visiting a shoulder clinic at a tertiary hospital in Korea from January 2011 to January 2012 to determine the frequency of os acromiale. X-ray findings were confirmed with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for patients who had these images available. MRI was also used to assess the status of the rotator cuff. The correlation between the presence of os acromiale either with gender, hand dominance or rotator cuff tear was analyzed statistically. RESULTS: A total of 2,946 shoulders from 1,568 patients were analyzed with X-rays. Thirteen cases out of 1,568 patients had an os acromiale; and there were five and eight cases of pre-acromiale and meso-acromiale, respectively. Thus, the prevalence of os acromiale in this study population was found to be 0.7 (7 cases per 1,000 patients). Bilaterality was found in two cases. Os acromiale was not more frequent according to gender (five males versus eight females, p = 0.525) and hand dominance was not associated with frequency of os acromiale (seven dominant arms versus six non-dominant arms, p = 0.631). A sub-analysis of shoulders with available MRIs (1,074 shoulders) revealed that there were two rotator cuff tears (40%) out of five cases of os acromiale, whereas 607 rotator cuff tears were observed (57%) among 1069 cases without os acromiale. This difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.656). CONCLUSIONS: The identified prevalence of os acromiale in Korean patients who visited shoulder clinics is 0.7%, which is much lower as compared with the prevalence of general population from other ethnic groups. No correlation was observed between rotator cuff tears and os acromiale in this study population.

Operative Treatment of Symptomatic Os Acromiale

Os acromiale is the rare shoulder disease and its treatment is controversial. Despite conservative treatments for 6 months include medication, exercise, physical therapy and subacromial steroid injections, operative treatment for uncontrolled symptomatic Os acromiale is considered the treatment of choice. Operative treatment includes excision, arthroscopic or open reduction and internal fixation with a bone graft. Open reduction with tension band wiring and a bone graft is now the preferred treatment. We experienced 8 patients with symptomatic Os acromiale from March, 2001 to March, 2006. The average patient's age was 45 years and the man and women ratio were 2: 6. All 8 cases of symptomatic Os acromiale of the mesoacromion were treated with open reduction and internal fixation using tension-band wiring. The preoperative ASES(47.3+/-24.4) and UCLA (16.6+/-5.8)scores were improved to 88.8+/-7.3 and 31.5+/-1.9, respectively, at the 2 year follow up. The overall UCLA score showed 1 excellent result and 7 good results. We think that symptomatic Os acromiale is a specific disease entity, and open reduction and internal fixation using tension-band wiring with K-wire is a good treatment modality.