Smoking increases the risk of rotator cuff injury. However, few studies have statistically examined this. In this study, we investigated the influence of smoking on rotator cuff injury. Of the 59 patients who underwent surgery for rotator cuff injury in our hospital between 1997 and 2009, 43 were the subjects in this study excluding 10 who sustained high-impact trauma and 6 in whom the presence or absence of smoking was unclear. Ages at the time of surgery ranged from 31 to 76 years, with a mean of 55.0 years. There were 30 males and 13 females. The mean duration of smoking was 22.1 years (range: 10-42 years). One patient had a history of diabetes. Based on data from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, we estimated the number of smokers in Japan. We investigated the influence of smoking on rotator cuff injury by analyzing patients with this injury who were treated in our hospital and Japanese persons with respect to the presence or absence of smoking. We employed the chi square test. P=0.05 was regarded as significant. Of the 43 subjects, 18 had a history of smoking. The proportion of these patients was significantly higher than the smoking rate in Japan (P=.008). These results suggest that smoking is a risk factor for rotator cuff injury.
