Rare diseases · Sign or symptom
Scapular winging
Winged shoulder blade
HP:0003691
What it means
Abnormal protrusion of the scapula away from the surface of the back.
The serratus anterior muscle is responsible for controlling the scapula (shoulder blade), and weakness of this muscle (which may be caused by damage to the long thoracic nerve) can manifest as scular winging.
Rare diseases that can present with this36
Common30–79%
14- Adult-onset distal myopathy due to VCP mutation
- Alpha-sarcoglycan-related limb-girdle muscular dystrophy R3
- Autosomal dominant Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy
- Autosomal recessive Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy
- Calpain-3-related limb-girdle muscular dystrophy R1
- Camptodactyly syndrome, Guadalajara type 1
- Congenital myopathy with myasthenic-like onset
- Delta-sarcoglycan-related limb-girdle muscular dystrophy R6
- Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy
- Gamma-sarcoglycan-related limb-girdle muscular dystrophy R5
- Neuralgic amyotrophy
- Noonan syndrome with multiple lentigines
- Synaptic congenital myasthenic syndrome
- X-linked Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy
Sometimes5–29%
14- Anoctamin-5-related limb-girdle muscular dystrophy R12
- Autosomal dominant Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2Y
- Autosomal recessive centronuclear myopathy
- Bethlem muscular dystrophy
- Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1F
- Childhood-onset nemaline myopathy
- Congenital myasthenic syndrome with glycosylation defect
- Dysferlin-related limb-girdle muscular dystrophy R2
and 6 more in this range
The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.
Part of the broader category
Also called: Scapula alata · Scapular weakness · Winged scapulae · Winged scapulas
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Start free with EleplanThis page uses the Human Phenotype Ontology (2026-06-23) — Human Phenotype Ontology Consortium, hpo.jax.org. Disease associations from Orphanet (INSERM), CC BY 4.0. Content is educational and is not medical advice.