Abstract
We reported 15 patients with rotator cuff tears who underwent arthroscopic examination, and compared the findings with those of 5 patients with frozen shoulder. The main intraarticular finding was vascular synovitis in the frozen shoulder. On the other hand, the pathological changes of the glenoid labrum, intraarticular portion of the bicipital long tendon and glenoid articular cartilage were more frequent in the shoulder with rotator cuff tears.
We thought that the rotator cuff plays a significant role of the glenohumeral stabilizer.
We concluded the shoulder associated with cuff tears had more degenerative changes compared with the frozen shoulder.
