Abstract
Ultrasonography (US) of the rotator cuff tear is very useful because it has many merits, such as high accuracy and noninvasiveness. The purpose of this study was to compare US findings with intra-operative findings.
Since 1987 we have performed US on 120 shoulders in 117 patients. Of 8 patients studied, who had been operated on recently, 4 had one tendon rupture and 4 sustained ruptures of two or more.
With a small size transducer of real time 7.5MHz (Toshiba-SSA), US observation which consisted of measuring the width of the rotator cuff tear, was performed before operation. Subsequently, the width of the cuff tear was measured directly during the operation and ranged from 15 to 50 mm. The difference between the US findings and the intra-operative findings averaged 3.9 mm. The maximum difference was 10 mm and in only two patients, while the US measurements in the remaining 6 patients were almost correct. We therefore believe that US can be used in rotator cuff tears to detect their location and size accurately and easily.
