Axillary artery aneurysm
What is it?
- Compression injury to the axillary artery.
- Most axillary artery aneurysms have been reported in baseball pitchers and volleyball players.
What is the cause?
- The mechanism of injury to the axillary vessel is unclear, but there may be damage from the pectoralis minor muscle during repetitive hyperabduction, extension and external rotation of the shoulder.
- Another possibility is damage from bony contact.
- There is evidence that pitching has shown direct compression of the artery by the humeral head.
- It is thought that the sharp downward thrust of the humeral head during a smash in volleyball similarly traumatizes the axillary artery.
Signs and Symptoms:
- Axillary artery aneurysms have been reported in baseball pitchers and volleyball players.
- The patients have generally presented with a sudden onset of numbness, coolness and cold intolerance of fingers of the throwing hand.
Pain referral pattern:
- Pain, numbness, and feeling of 'cold' after exercise.
Diagnostic tool to rule in/out:
- Arteriography and duplex scanning may demonstrate an aneurysm in the axillary artery at the origin of the posterior humeral circumflex artery.
Presentation of the disease:
- Patients generally present with sudden onset of numbness, coolness, and cold intolerance of fingers of the throwing hand.