Purpose
To investigate the prevalence of a contralateral rotator cuff tear (RCT) in patients
with a symptomatic RCT requiring repair and to determine whether findings from magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI) of the affected shoulder can predict the presence of a contralateral
tear.
Methods
Patients with atraumatic RCTs who had undergone arthroscopic repair between March
2019 and February 2021 were reviewed in this study. MRI of both shoulder joints was
performed to evaluate the bilaterality of RCT. Demographic factors and MRI findings
of index shoulders were assessed using logistic regression analysis to reveal any
correlations with the presence of RCT in the contralateral shoulder.
Results
A total of 428 patients were enrolled in this study. When the affected shoulders had
a posterosuperior rotator cuff (PSRC) or subscapularis tear including either an isolated
or combined tear, 63.6% and 67.8% had the same tears on the contralateral side, respectively.
A contralateral-side tear was found in 74.6% (185/248) of symptomatic cases and 44.8%
(65/145) of asymptomatic cases, which represents a significant difference (P < .001). Logistic regression analysis revealed that age ≥67.5 years, tear size ≥17
mm, Goutallier grade ≥1.5, and Patte grade ≥1.5 were found to be indicative of potential
contralateral PSRC tears. By contrast, the presence of a subscapularis tear in the
affected shoulder was the only significant risk factor in predicting a potential subscapularis
tear in the contralateral shoulder.
Conclusions
Among patients with a symptomatic RCT requiring arthroscopic repair, 63.6% with a
PSRC tear and 67.8% with a subscapularis tear in the affected shoulder were found
to have a similar tear in the contralateral shoulder regardless of symptoms. Age,
tear size, extent of retraction, fatty infiltration of PSRC tears, and the presence
of subscapularis tears were identified as factors predictive of tears on the contralateral
side.
Level of Evidence
IV, case series.
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 18, 2023
Accepted:
February 2,
2023
Received:
August 11,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Journal Pre-ProofFootnotes
The authors report that they have no conflicts of interest in the authorship and publication of this article. Full ICMJE author disclosure forms are available for this article online, as supplementary material.
Identification
Copyright
© 2023 by the Arthroscopy Association of North America
