Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the joint position sense of torn or repaired rotator cuff using active angle reproduction test. Thirty-four patients (18 males, 16 female with a mean age of 66.1 years) with torn rotator cuff (group T) and 26 patients (19 males, 7 female with a mean age of 65.3 years) with repaired rotator cuff (group R) were evaluated. The target angle was set up at the 30° of internal rotation (I, the 30° and 45° of external rotation and the 30°, 45°, and 60° of scapular elevation. When the shoulder of the blindfolded patients who were sat on the chair reached at these angles, an examiner asked the patient to remember them. After these were examined three times, the mean angles were recorded. The absolute value of the difference between the mean and the target angles was utilized. At 30° of IR, the value was 7.03°±5.74° in group T and 1.08°±0.93° in group R (p<0.0001). At all other target angles, the error of the joint position sense in group R was significantly smaller than that in group T (p<0.01).
The joint position sense with a torn rotator cuff improves after repair.
