抄録
The operative findings of 12 patients with bilateral ratator cuff tears were reviewed to find out the characteristics of the tears. All the patients were men aged from 37 to 69 (mean 55) years. Six cases were heavy labourers and the others were engaged in sedentary work.
The macroscopic findings of the torn stumps were investigated. The presence of a traumatic history, the duration between the onset of the symptoms and the operations and the shapes of the acromions were also evaluated.
Results
Three cases had significant traumas in bilateral shoulders and three cases had them unilaterally. The other six cases had atraumatic onsets of symptoms. Both acromions were identical in shape in 11cases, and classified as Bigliani's type 2 (curved) in 10 cases, and type 1 (flat) in one case. The intraoperative findings showed bilateral incomplete tears in three cases, bilateral small tears in five cases and bilateral large tears in one case. The other two cases had different sizes of complete tears. The torn stumps of six cases were studied histologically. Most of them demonstrated similar findings in both the degenerative and reactive changes in bilateral shoulders.
Conclusion
There were similarities in both types of tears and histologic findings in bilateral rotator cuff tears.
