41 cases of partial thickness tear of the rotator cuff underwent surgical treatment during a 16year period from 1976. We made an evaluation of the 6-months-or-more post-operative results in 35cases using the J.O.A.score.
The types of partial cuff tear were (1) joint side tear in 20 cases,(2) intratendinous tear in 4 cases,and (3) bursal side tear in 11 cases.
The joint side tear was frequently positive in the arthrogram (90%) and color injection test.72% of the bursal side tears were positive in the bursogram. To the contrary, it is extremelydifficult to diagnose an intratendinous tear pre-operatively.
Neer's anterior acromioplasty was performed on all of the cases. A partial thickness tear wasresected, and repaired mainly according to McLaughlin's procedure.
The total score improved from the pre-operative mean of 58 points to a post-operative mean of91 points. Most of the cases, i.e. 23 cases (66%), had a total score ranging from 91 to 100 points,followed by 8 cases (23%) in the range of 81 to 90 points. There were 4 cases (11%) with a poor scoreof 80 points or less.
In our procedure, anterior acromioplasty was performed to remove impingement, and at thesame time, any partial tear detected was resected, followed by a repair at the normal site. Weconsider it important to make the bursal floor as smooth as possible to prevent post-operativeimpingement.
