Elevation is a form of movement of the shoulder and corresponds to a continuation of abduction beyond a 90-degree angle. The eye is also capable of elevation, which involves lifting the eyeball in adduction. Lesions of the nerves supplying each motor system may result in a limitation of the respective elevation.
What is elevation?
Elevation is a form of shoulder motion and corresponds to a continuation of abduction beyond a 90-degree angle. Humans need the elevation motion to throw “from the shoulder,” for example. Joints are movable connections between two or more bones. Depending on their shape, all joints have specific axes of motion. Two movements are possible on each axis of motion. The connected bones can thus move out of or back into the neutral zero position to a certain degree. One axis of motion is the axis of abduction and adduction. Abduction is an abduction motion. Adduction is pulling in. For example, a person can move their arm into abduction, leading their limb away from their body. The so-called elevation is an increase or continuation of the abduction. Only the arms can be brought to elevation. This is the case when a person exceeds the horizontal angle of 90 degrees during abduction of the arm. The possibility of elevation is provided exclusively by the shoulder joint. Sometimes, however, elevation is also mentioned in the case of eye movements. In this context, the elevation of the eyes corresponds to the upward movement of the eyeball.
Function and task
As a continuation of abduction, elevation is a type of abduction movement. While several joints of the body provide the ability for abduction and adduction, elevation is exclusive to the shoulder joint. The shoulder joint is a ball and socket joint that is considered the most mobile joint of its kind in the human body. Abduction movements in the sense of abduction are possible in this joint up to 90 degrees from the neutral zero position. With the involvement of the shoulder girdles, the shoulder joints even allow abductions of up to 180 degrees. The shoulder joints are guided and secured by the cuff-like muscles that attach to the joint. This so-called rotator cuff makes a significant contribution to joint stability. The tendon of the biceps brachii muscle and the deltoid and pectoralis major muscles, together with other muscles, are also involved in stabilizing and guiding the joint and its axes of motion. The elevation movement is required by humans for throwing “from the shoulder”, for example. This movement is made possible with the interaction of the aforementioned muscles, and is also due to the high range of motion of the joint itself. In relation to eye movement, elevation is the lifting of the eyeball in adduction. This elevation is made possible by the obliquus inferior muscle. The elevation ability of the eyes plays an important role in upward gaze because, since humans are eye-controlled creatures, the individual partial movements and axes of movement of the eyes are very relevant to human evolution. Thus, in prehistoric times, thanks to the mobility of his eyes, man has formed a relatively reliable picture of dangers in his immediate environment. The individual axes of eye movement have thus contributed significantly to the survival advantage of the human species.
Diseases and ailments
Both the elevation of the eyes and that of the shoulder can be limited or even fail due to pathological processes. Because both types of elevation are performed by the aforementioned muscles, muscle diseases can make elevation difficult, for example. In addition to muscle diseases, elevation may also be impeded or fail due to a lesion of the nerve tissue supplying the motor system. The shoulder is motor innervated by the nerves of the brachial plexus. The relevant motor nerve of the eye elevation is the oculomotor nerve. Nerve damage can be traumatic, due to poisoning or malnutrition, tumor-related, or, in the context of inflammation, bacterial or autoimmunological in nature. While restrictions of the shoulder elevation can also be caused by a spinal cord infarction, strokes are also possible causes for disorders of the eye elevation.Joint diseases are also a possibility for disorders of shoulder elevation. One possible cause of the restriction can be osteoarthritis, for example. This is wear and tear of the articular cartilage beyond the physiological age limit, which is accompanied by pain and can lead to stiffening of the joint in the late stages. Dislocation of the shoulder is also a common phenomenon due to the large range of motion of the joint. In luxation, the joint dislocates colloquially. This means that the joint head is no longer in the socket, so that the usual movements are no longer possible. Dislocations can be congenital. Other congenital deformities and malformations of the shoulder may also be associated with an impaired ability to elevate.
