Rotator Cuff Research Paper

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The shoulder is one of the most used body parts in the human body. It is a ball and socket joint which means it has a great range of motion allowing for humans to freely move it. In fact, the shoulder has the greatest range of motion out of any joint in the body. Because of its high mobility, the shoulder has a high risk of being injured. The 3 bones that make up the shoulder are the clavicle, scapula, and humerus (upper arm bone). The tendons and muscles that attach the scapula to the head of the humerus are known as the rotator cuff. The 4 muscles that make up the rotator cuff are the teres minor, infraspinatus, supraspinatus, and subscapularis. Rotator cuff muscles insert at the scapula while the tendons attach to the humerus forming …show more content…
The bursa allows the rotator cuff tendons to glide freely when you move your arm. The bursa can also become inflamed and painful when the rotator cuff tendons are injured or damaged (ortho). The rotator cuff provides stability and allows the shoulder to rotate internally and externally, while also allowing for abducting and adducting of the arm.
Types of rotator cuff tears and causes
There are 2 different types of rotator cuff tears. Partial tears and full thickness tears. Partial tears damage the soft tissue but does not completely sever it (1). Full thickness tears split the soft tissue into 2 pieces. In many cases, tendons tear off where they attach to the head of the humerus. With a full thickness tear, there is basically a hole in the tendon (1). A full thickness rotator cuff tear is a defect in the tendon that reaches from the bursal to the …show more content…
It is operator dependent meaning it requires a highly skilled person to manage the equipment and reduced sensitivity with obese patients or patients who have acutely restricted shoulder movement. Even with these disadvantages, ultrasonography is a top imaging modality for diagnosing rotator cuff tears. Ultrasound has advantages over other imaging modalities in the imaging of the shoulder in that it is non-invasive, quick, cheap, readily available and dynamic modality (mcbride). It has also been shown that ultrasound is just as accurate as MRI in detecting and evaluating cuff tears (mcbride). But because of it being operator dependent, ultrasound still remains the imaging modality after MRI (Tempelaere). There are diverse techniques for scanning the shoulder such as the operator facing the patient or standing behind and scanning over the patients shoulder. To provide a quality image for the cuff tendons, a high frequency (7-15 MHz) linear array probe is mandatory (medscape). When examing the rotator cuff, the subscapularis tendon is imaged first while the patients arm is externally rotated (pal). But diagnosing subscapularis injury is very difficult because most of the tears are on the superior portion of the tendon which are hard to visualize (pal). The next tendon to be examined is the supraspinatus and to view the anatomy properly, the patient places
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