Intraoperative shape of rotator cuff tears in traumatic and non traumatic cases

The decision whether a rotator cuff tear has a traumatic or degenerative or igin still causes some controversy. Especially in medical expert appraiseme nts the etiology of the rotator cuff tear plays an important role refering to insurance services for the patient. The purpose of this paper is to comp are the intraoperative pathomorphologic shape of the cuff tear in traumatic and degenerative cases. This study reports of 56 patients with rotator cuf f tears which were devided in primarily acute, subacute traumatic and degen erative study groups refering to their history of present illness. We consi dered the location of the tear,the shape and the size. Furthermore the grad e of retraction of the supraspinatus tendon, its quality and the shape of t he long head of biceps were examined. The results showed that in general th e shape of the tear gives only in some cases significant information whethe r the etiology is traumatic or not. The isolated rupture of the subscapular is muscle and the hematoma at the edge of the tendon is significant for the trauma. In comparison with the degenerative study group the tenosynovitis and the dislocation of the long head of biceps is in our study sigificant f or traumatic tears.