Pure Vertical Tear or Longitudinal Rents of the Rotator Cuff

Abstract

[Purpose]A pure vertical tear or the longitudinal rents of a rotator cuff have a tear not in the tendon but in the rotator interval. These special types of tear were evaluated on surgical results, operative findings and clinical features.
[Materials and methods]Between 1970 and 1999, fifteen hundred and twenty three shoulders with a rotator cuff tear were operated on in our hospital. Of these,110 shoulders in 109 patients were diagnosed as a pure vertical tear or the longitudinal rents of the rotator cuff by our intraoperative findings. There were 80 men and 29 women, and their mean age was 51.5 years old (range,14 to 80).
[Results]The causes of injury were a fall (39%), lifting (9%), a bruise (7%), overuse (14%) and unknown (16%). The injuries were located in the rotator interval (30%), in the RI and the subscapularis tendon (51%), in the RI, subscapularis tendon and supraspinatus tendon (12%). A rupture of the LHB was observed in 7% of all cases. On surgical procedures, side to side suturing was done in 70% of the cases, the McLaughlin method in 10% and a combination of the side to side suturing and the McLaughlin method in 10%. The postoperative muscle strength was evaluated as a normal 85% and as a slightly weak 15%.83% of the patients had no pain and 16% of the patients had a mild pain because of overuse.89% of the patients could live without any shoulder problem and 11% of the patients had some disability in the ADL.
[Conclusion]The intraoperative findings showed an extention from the rotator interval to the supraspinatous or the subscapularis. Therefore, the longitudinal rents seem to be an important cause of a various type of tear in the rotator cuff.