Rotator cuff muscle tear

The patient s arm is elevated to 90 degrees of abduction and released. If there is a tear in the rotator cuff muscles, the arm will drop. If the tear is partial, by tapping on the arm the physician will cause it to drop. 

The second injuiy is a tear of the rotator cuff muscles. This is frequently a tendinous tear, although the muscle itself may be tom. A tear can be caused in young people by a significant force at the shoulder or in older people by a wearing away of the fibers of the tendon, which weakens it so that a lesser force may tear the tendon. Rotator cuff tears may vaiy in degree of severity. The supraspinatus is the most likely of the rotator cuff muscles to rupture caused by its passing... 

Once a complete evaluation of rotator cuff tendons has been performed, the size and location of the tear has been determined and the degree of retraction of the torn tendon has been assessed, the status of the rotator cuff muscles should also be evaluated to rule out possible hypotrophy and fat degeneration (SoFKA et al. 2004a). In fact, the orthopaedic literature has confirmed that recognition of musde atro-... 

In other words, when scanning is obtained along the tendon axis, the plane may not be in the real axis of the tendon fibers to produce intense specular echoes. Nevertheless, there is a tendon portion more fibrillar in echotexture and anisotropic in the supraspinatus it is located anteriorly and seems to be related to a cylindrical bundle of fibers with a straight course arising from the anterior part of the muscle belly. This tendon portion can mimic a biceps tendon due to its strong anisotropy (Fig. 6.35b,d). The other flat portion of the tendon tapers posteriorly and infiltrates the undersurface of the cylindrical tendon. A hypoechoic band may sometimes be seen separating the flat and cylindrical parts of the tendon it should not be mistaken for a rotator cuff tear. 

There are few reports in literature dealing with spontaneous rupture of the deltoid muscle. In the reported cases, the injury occurred in patients with chronic, massive rotator cuff tears and was in some instances responsible for an acute onset of shoulder weakness. One of the possible causative factors claimed to explain rupture or detachment of the deltoid muscle is a history of repeated steroid injections for frozen shoulder and longstanding rotator cuff tears (Allen and Drakos 2002). Because, in patients with deltoid rupture and massive rotator cuff tear, contraction of the intact deltoid can lead... 

Bianchi S, Martinoh C, Ahdelwahah IF et al (2006) Imaging findings of spontaneous detachment of the deltoid muscle as a complication of massive rotator cuff tear. Skeletal Radiol (35 410-415)... 

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