Rotator Cuff Tear - Epidemiology

Epidemiology

The vast majority of these tears occur in the supraspinatus tendon. In a study of 306 cadaveric shoulders, noted a 32% incidence of partial-thickness tears and a 19% incidence of full-thickness tears within the supraspinatus tendon. Cadaveric studies have noted intratendinous tears to actually be more frequent than bursal-sided or articular-sided tears. Partial-thickness tears were further grouped as bursal-sided (2.4%), intratendinous (7.2%), and articular-sided (3.6%). However, clinically, articular-sided tears are found to be 2 to 3 times more common than bursal-sided tears. In fact, among a population of young athletes, found that articular-sided tears constituted 91% of all partial-thickness tears. Partial-thickness tears of the subscapularis that were seen with concomitant lesions of the long head of the biceps in 30.4% of these tears have also merited attention. Therefore, lesions within the biceps tendon mandate close evaluation for related injury within the subscapularis tendon.