Non‐union of the epiphysis of the acromion in the skeletal remains of a Scottish population of ca. 1700

Abstract

Abstract A separation across the acromion is found in 3–8 per cent of adults and can be fibrous union of a fracture, or non‐union of the epiphysis. The only descriptions, based on dissected specimens, derive from the last century and show that the separations are pseudarthroses, or intra‐acromial joints, with synovial cavities. Examples occur of double epiphyses with two joints. Eleven skeletalized examples, two bilateral and two through the acromio‐clavicular articular facet, are described. The moderately congruent surfaces of separation showed features consistent with pseudarthrosis but gave no indication of any consistent type of movement in the joints. It is concluded that all were probably due to non‐union of the epiphysis although, especially as they occurred in a population in which injuries were commonplace, some could have derived from fractures. One specimen showed evidence of derangement of the shoulder joint, with impingement of the greater tuberosity of the humerus against the undersurface of the free part of the acromion producing eburnated attrition facets.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 23 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.