Electromyographic study of shoulder and acromioclavicular joint muscles in women who underwent unilateral breast surgery of the types mastectomy and quadrantectomy

Abstract

We studied 20 women with mean age 57.7 years, being 9 with unilateral quadrantectomy surgery, 1 with surgery type bilateral quadrantectomy and 10 with unilateral mastectomy surgery. The average operative time was 9.8 (nine years and eight months). We studied using surface electromyography the mean deltoid, upper trape-zius and latissimus dorsi muscles in order to check the action potentials of these muscles when performing a sequence of movements of these joints. It was used for the study, an Acquisition Data System ADS1000 containing 12 channels. The electromyography (EMG) results expressed in RMS (Root Mean Square) were analyzed and compared between the surgical and nonsurgical side, among the three repetitions of the sequence of movements and between mastectomy and quadrantectomy for each muscle. For statistical analysis we used analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a double repetition factor (p < 0.05) for the EMG results. The results showed a significant difference (p < 0.05) between the surgical and non-surgical sides to the muscles studied. There was no significant difference between the three repetitions of sequential movements in electromyographic analysis to the muscles studied. There was no significant difference between the types of surgery (mastectomy and quadrantectomy) for the muscles studied.