[Unstable painful shoulders (author's transl)].

The authors have observed 23 cases of painful and unstable shoulders in athlets which could be related to unknown recurrent dislocations. The diagnosis was based on a radiological study demonstrating a deformity of the humeral upper extremity and of the glenoid. The patients were incapacited and had often been treated for "tendinitis". Most of the cases have been operated by a grafting of the anterior edge of the glenoid with success. It is thought that most of the glenoidal lesions are consequences and not causes of the dislocations.