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Scalenus syndrome (Naffziger's syndrome).
Last reviewed: 06.07.2025
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Symptoms of scalenus syndrome consist of local signs of damage to the anterior scalene muscle in combination with a picture of compression of the brachial plexus and subclavian artery. The development of the syndrome undergoes two stages: functional - without signs of organic changes in the vessels and organic, when stenosis and occlusion of the subclavian artery are detected.
The main symptoms of scalenus syndrome are associated with reflex tension of the anterior scalene muscle, which occurs when the III-VI cervical roots are irritated.
The clinical picture of damage to the subclavian artery quite often includes autonomic disorders - pallor, acrocyanosis, sweating of the hands, trophic disorders of the skin and nails.
Vegetative-vascular and trophic disorders are also found in the clinical picture of costoclavicular syndrome (Falconer-Weddle syndrome), pectoralis minor syndrome (hyperabduction syndrome, Wright-Mendlovich syndrome), Parsonage-Turner syndrome (neuralgic amyotrophy) and Paget-Schroeter syndrome.
Among all neurovascular syndromes of the lower extremities, autonomic disorders are most clearly represented in the picture of the piriformis syndrome. Autonomic-vascular and trophic disorders are manifested by paresthesias in the innervation zone of the sciatic nerve (chilliness, a feeling of crawling ants, tingling, numbness, decreased pulse in the arteries of the dorsum of the foot and at the medial malleolus, hyperhidrosis, acrocyanosis, pallor of the skin of the feet, decreased skin temperature, sometimes distal edema), and autonomic-vascular-trophic disorders are not severe: patients do not have gangrene, loss of pulse in the arteries, thrombophlebitis, etc.
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