Presentation
Tackle during a football (soccer) match. Painful shoulder with a prominent acromion upon physical examination.
Patient Data
Anterior shoulder dislocation. On the frontal projection, the humeral head projects medial and inferiorly, indicating an anterior dislocation.
Case Discussion
The shoulder is the most commonly dislocated joint. Almost all of the dislocations are anterior.
Sometimes proper lateral radiographs are unavailable, thus it is quite useful to know how to recognise an anterior dislocation on a frontal projection, in which the humeral head will be displaced medial and inferiorly and the glenohumeral joint will be incongruent.