Rotator cuff tendon tears are one of the most common shoulder injuries. Although surgical repair is typically beneficial, re-tearing of the tendons frequently occurs. It is generally accepted that healing is worse for chronic tears than acute tears, but the reasons for this are unknown. One potential cause may be the large tensions that are sometimes required to repair chronically torn tendons ...

According to our previous clinical impression, we hypothesized that patients who had symptomatic rotator cuff tendon tear in a diamemter below 3 cm would benefit from arthroscopic subacromial decompression only, without the need for the repair of the thorn tendon. From 1998 to 2003, 160 patients (168 shoulders) had arthroscopic subacromial decompression for impingement syndrome with a torn rota...

INTRODUCTION: Rotator cuff tear is one of the most common disorders of the shoulder joint among middle aged or elder population. When a tear occurs, the corresponding muscle loses its function due to a loss of tendon continuity and the changes of muscular structure. The pennation angle, which was defined as an angle between the muscle fiber with its inserting intramuscular tendon, is one of the...

Traditional methods of open and mini-open rotator cuff repairs have shown excellent results in shortand medium-term follow-up and remain viable methods of treating rotator cuff pathology. A trend toward the arthroscopic repair of rotator cuff tears continues, however, and will probably accelerate as the next generation of surgeons is trained in arthroscopic treatment methods. The purpose of thi...

The objectives of this study were: 1) to identify the ultrasonographic (US) abnormalities and 2) to compare the findings of physical examination with US findings in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients with shoulder pain. We studied 30 RA patients. Physical examination was performed systemically as follows: 1) area of tenderness; 2) range of passive and active shoulder motion; 3) impingement test...

BACKGROUND Irreparable rotator cuff tears associated with shoulder functional impairment represent a challenge, especially in young and active patients. Latissimus dorsi muscle-tendon transfer is performed to replace the irreversibly lost contractile elements in patients with irreparable tears of the posterosuperior aspect of the rotator cuff. METHODS From 2008 to 2010, we enrolled twenty-sev...

BACKGROUND A familial predisposition to the development of rotator cuff tearing has been previously reported. Very little information exists on the development of global tendon dysfunction in patients with rotator cuff tears. The purpose of the current study was to determine the incidence of global tendon dysfunction as well as the need for surgery for tendon dysfunction in patients with rotato...