Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Jan;44(1):198-201.
doi: 10.1177/0363546515611653. Epub 2015 Nov 12.

The Coracohumeral Distance in Shoulders With Traumatic and Degenerative Subscapularis Tendon Tears

Maurice Balke  1 , Marc Banerjee  2 , Oliver Greshake  3 , Juergen Hoeher  3 , Bertil Bouillon  2 , Dennis Liem  4
Affiliations

The Coracohumeral Distance in Shoulders With Traumatic and Degenerative Subscapularis Tendon Tears

Maurice Balke et al. Am J Sports Med. 2016 Jan.

Abstract

Background: A reduced coracohumeral distance (CHD) is thought to be responsible for subcoracoid impingement. This only accounts for degenerative tendon tears. In traumatic tears, the subcoracoid space should be normal.

Hypothesis: The CHD in patients with traumatic subscapularis tendon tears is larger than that in patients with degenerative tears and does not differ from patients with an intact subscapularis tendon.

Study design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3.

Methods: A total of 83 patients with arthroscopically certified subscapularis tendon tears were included in the study. Forty-four patients had degenerative causes (group 1), and 39 had traumatic causes (group 2). The control group consisted of 20 patients with traumatic supraspinatus tendon tears and arthroscopically proven, intact subscapularis tendons (group 3). On preoperative axial magnetic resonance imaging, the distance between the CHD was measured, and the values of the 3 groups were compared using the t test.

Results: The mean (±SD) CHD in patients with degenerative subscapularis tendon tears was 8.6 ± 2.0 mm (range, 4.0-13.2 mm) and was significantly (P = .0003) smaller than that in patients with traumatic tears (10.2 ± 2.0 mm; range, 6.6-16.2 mm) or controls (10.4 ± 1.8 mm; range, 6.8-14.0 mm). The CHD of controls and patients with traumatic tears did not differ significantly (P = .7875). A CHD of less than 6 mm only occurred in patients with degenerative subscapularis tendon tears.

Conclusion: The hypothesis that the CHD in patients with degenerative subscapularis tendon tears is significantly smaller than that in patients with traumatic tears or intact subscapularis tendons was confirmed. The CHD in patients with traumatic tears does not differ from that in controls. A CHD of less than 6 mm only occurs in patients with degenerative subscapularis tendon tears.

Keywords: MRI; coracohumeral distance; rotator cuff tear; shoulder trauma; subscapularis.

PubMed Disclaimer

LinkOut - more resources