Clinical Challenge 2: April 2016

Case

A 42-year-old woman presents with pain in her right shoulder that suddenly began after she caught herself with her raised right arm as she fell. She reports that she had been standing on a step stool and reaching for an object, and then fell forward. She has severe pain in the right shoulder, and it worsens with movement even through a minimal range of motion. She has associated numbness over the lateral portion of her upper arm. She does not have fever, vomiting, chest pain, shortness of breath, abdominal pain, any head injury, or head or neck pain.

View the image taken (Figure 1) and consider what your diagnosis would be. Resolution of the case is described on the next page.