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Review
. 2019 Jun;7(6):e9.
doi: 10.2106/JBJS.RVW.18.00149.

Asymptomatic Rotator Cuff Tears

Rebekah L Lawrence  1 , Vasilios Moutzouros, Michael J Bey
Affiliations
Review

Asymptomatic Rotator Cuff Tears

Rebekah L Lawrence et al. JBJS Rev. 2019 Jun.

Abstract

  1. Asymptomatic rotator cuff tears (RCTs) are prevalent in the general population; they are positively associated with age and are common in the contralateral shoulder of individuals who are being treated for shoulder pain or a symptomatic RCT.

  2. Asymptomatic RCTs are likely to become symptomatic over time, corresponding with decreased patient-reported function, strength, and range of motion.

  3. Previous studies have largely reported inconsistent findings regarding patient-reported outcomes, strength, range of motion, and kinematics in individuals with asymptomatic RCTs.

  4. Future research would benefit from characterizing any functional alteration that is associated with asymptomatic rotator cuff pathology, including determining whether such alterations are detrimental or compensatory and understanding the mechanism by which an asymptomatic RCT becomes symptomatic.

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Conflict of interest statement

The Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest forms are provided with the online version of the article (http://links.lww.com/JBJSREV/A444).

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The number of published rotator cuff articles (PubMed search: “rotator cuff”; English language only) has risen dramatically over the past 50 years.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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