Delamination is 1 of the horizontal tears' morphology observed in full-thickness rotator cuff tears. However, this pathology is not well known about in detail. The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics of delamination by arthroscopic evaluations.
We retrospectively evaluated arthroscopic findings in 162 patients (100 males and 62 females) with arthroscopically treated full-thickness rotator cuff tears. The average age at the surgery was 62.2 years old (from 31 to 79 years old).
Cofield's classification for rotator cuff tear sizes: small, medium, large and massive was used. Patients were divided into 3 groups as their age; the 30s and 40s were classified as group A (21 cases), the 50s and 60s were classified as group B (102 cases) and the 70s were classified as group C (39 cases). We evaluated the relationship between arthroscopic findings about delamination and each group.
Delamination was observed in 60 cases (38 males and 22 females) (37.0%).
Delamination was not observed in 102 cases (62 males and 40 females) (63.0%).There was no statistical relationship between frequency and gender. Frequencies of delamination in each tear size group were as follows. massive: 14/39 (36%), large: 9/20 (45%), medium: 33/84 (39%) and small: 4/19 (21%).
There were low frequencies in the small size group compared to the larger size groups.
Frequencies of delamination in each age group were as follows:Group A: 10/21 (48%), group B: 37/102 (36%) and group C: 13/39 (33%). There were high frequencies in the youngest age group compared to the older age groups. Frequencies of delamination was lowest in the small size tear group and it was highest in the youngest age group.
