A Pair of Atypical Rhomboid Muscles

Jihyun Lee; Wonsug Jung

doi:10.11637/kjpa.2015.28.4.247

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Lee and Jung: A Pair of Atypical Rhomboid Muscles

Case Report

Korean J Phys Anthropol 2015;28(4):247-251.

Published online: 20 April 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.11637/kjpa.2015.28.4.247

A Pair of Atypical Rhomboid Muscles

Jihyun Lee, Wonsug Jung

Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Gachon University

Correspondence to: Wonsug Jung (Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Gachon University) E-mail: wonsug@gachon.ac.kr

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

We report a pair of atypical rhomboideus muscles which originated higher than normal observed in a 49-year-old Korean male. Rhomboid muscles were not paralleogram shape but trapezoid with rhomboideus tertius attached inferior to the rhomboideus major muscles. Rhomboideus minor originated as tendon from the ligamentum nuchae of fourth and sixth cervical vertebrae level. The upper end of the origin of the rhomboideus major was the ligamentum nuchae between fifth and sixth cervical vertebrae level on the left side and the ligamentum nuchae at the sixth cervical vertebra level on the right side. The lower end of the origin of the rhomboideus major was the spinous process of the fourth thoracic vertebra on the left side and the spinous process of the second thoracic vertebra on the right side. The upper end of the origin of the rhomboideus tertius were the same as the lower end of the rhomboideus major and the lower end of the origin of the rhomboideus tertius were the spinous process of the fifth thoracic vertebrae on both sides. Whole rhomboideus muscle spanned over nine vertebrae. We compared these rhomboidei with previously reported variations and discussed its embryological and clinical significance.

Keywords: Rhomboid, Variation, Rhomboideus tertius, Korean

References

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Fig. 1.

Photograph and drawing of the atypical rhomboid muscles. The rhomboideus minors arose from ligamentum nuchae of 4–6th cer-vical vertebrae level. The origin of the left rhomboideus major was from ligamentum nuchae of 5th–6th cervical vertebrae level to spinous process of the 4th thoracic vertebra, and the right rhomboideus major was from ligamentum nuchae of 5th cervical vertebra level to the spi-nous process of the 2nd thoracic vertebra. The left rhomboideus tertius arose from the spinous processes of the 4–5th thoracic vertebrae, and the right rhomboideus tertius arose from the spinous processes of the 2–5th thoracic vertebrae. RMj, rhomboideus major; Rmi, rhomboideus minor; RT, rhomboideus tertius; SPS, serratus posterior superior; LS, levator scapulae; C4, spinous process of 4th cervical vertebra; C7, spinous process of 7th cervical vertebra; T5, spinous process of 5th thoracic vertebra.

Fig. 2.

The rhomboid muscle group in non-human primate (A) and in human (B) (redrawn and modified from figure in Ref. 8). In primate, the rhomboideus muscles show extensive origins including skull and the entire cervical and thoracic vertebrae in contrast to human with limited origin. RO, rhomboideus occipitalis; RC, rhomboideus cervicis; RT, rhomboideus thoracis; Rmi, rhomboide-us minor, RMj; rhomboideus major.

Table 1.

Measurement of rhomboid muscles

Measurements	Rhomboideus minor		Rhomboideus major		Rhomboideus tertius
Measurements	Left	Right	Left	Right	Left	Right
Muscle width at origin (mm)	32.58	31.64	136.46	59.78	25.13	90.50
Muscle width at insertion (mm)	18.34	11.14	98.27	84.77	4.46	10.14
Muscle length of upper margin (mm)	101.23	104.62	102.99	103.04	115.93	124.32
Muscle length of lower margin (mm)	100.64	99.95	117.35	128.76	116.69	107.66
Muscle thickness^∗ (mm)	4.90	4.89	7.58	7.18	1.30	2.39

^∗ measured at the middle of each muscle

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