NEURALGIC SHOULDER AMYOTROPHIA ASSOCIATED WITH BORRELIA-BURGDORFERI INFECTION

A long thoracic nerve palsy developed in two patients with Borrelia burgdorferi infection. In both cases, pain in the shoulder preceded a scapula detachment suggesting first a diagnosis of neuralgic shoulder amyotrophia. In the first case, there was a context of typical meningoradiculitis, while the second patient had an isolated right shoulder amyotrophia without any other neurologic signs and with normal CSF analysis. A detailed anamnesis, the serology profile, and the good response to an adequate antibiotic treatment allowed us to attribute these two long thoracic nerve palsies to B. burgdorferi. This infection is important to consider as a possible etiology in cases of peripheral neuritis without other obvious causes.