Is There A Relationship Between Critical Shoulder Angle and Fatty Degeneration and Number of Damaged Tendons in Rotator Cuff Arthropathy Patients?

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation of critical shoulder angle (CSA) in rotator cuff arthropathy patients with number of damaged rotator cuff tendons and muscle fatty degeneration. Rotator cuff arthropathy patients were included in this study. True antero-posterior radiographs (Grashey view) were used to measure the angle by the first author. The critical shoulder angles were measured on radiographs. The Magnetic resonance images (MRI) of same patients were assessed in terms of number of tendon involvements and fatty degeneration of rotator cuff muscles. There were 28 rotator cuff arthropathy patients comprising 16 females and 12 males. The mean age was 69.928.84 years. The right shoulder was affected in 20 patients. The left side was affected in 8 patients. The damaged rotator cuff tendons were as follows; supraspinatus tendon was affected in all patients, infraspinatus tendon was affected in 25 patients, teres minor was affected in 14 patients, and subscapularis tendon was affected in 24 patients. The critical shoulder angle was found 37.601.66 CSA values were found to be higher in patients having fatty degeneration than others having no fatty degeneration, and it was statistically significant (p<0.001). The CSA values were found to be higher in patients with having increased number of damaged tendons and with having fatty degeneration of rotator cuff muscles. The higher CSA means the worse rotator cuff arthropathy patients, therefore care should be taken for planning surgical treatment options.