HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Ferri, M. Articles by Friedman, L. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Ferri, M. Articles by Friedman, L. Social Bookmarking                      What's this? Hotlight (NEW!) What's Hotlight?

Sonography of Full-Thickness Supraspinatus Tears: Comparison of Patient Positioning Technique with Surgical Correlation

¹ Department of Diagnostic Imaging, McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences, 1003-81 Charlton Ave. E, Hamilton, ON, Canada, L8N 1Y7.
² Department of Diagnostic Imaging, McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences, Henderson General Hospital, 711 Concession St., Hamilton, ON, Canada L8V 1C3.
³ Department of Diagnostic Imaging, St. Joseph's Hospital, 50 Charlton Ave. E, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8N 4A6.
⁴ Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Guelph General Hospital, 115 Delhi St., Guelph, ON, Canada N1E 4J4.
⁵ Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, St. Mary's Hospital, 911 Queen's Blvd., Kitchener, ON, Canada N2M 1B2.

OBJECTIVE. Sonography has become a popular technique for the assessment of musculoskeletal disorders. Patient positioning is crucial to a thorough and accurate assessment of rotator cuff tendons. Two positions, the Crass and modified Crass, have been routinely used in the research and clinical settings to examine the supraspinatus tendon. Our study was a prospective trial to determine whether the Crass or the modified Crass position affords the most accurate measure of supraspinatus tears when compared with surgical findings.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS. Twenty-one patients with full-thickness supraspinatus tears underwent shoulder sonography in both the Crass and the modified Crass positions. Measurements of supraspinatus tears were performed in the sagittal and transverse dimensions. Patients subsequently underwent either arthroscopic or open supraspinatus repair. Intraoperative measurements were made in two dimensions and were compared with sonographic findings.

RESULTS. Sonography had 100% specificity in detecting full-thickness supraspinatus tears. No statistically significant difference was seen between the size of supraspinatus tears in the Crass and modified Crass positions and surgical findings in the transverse plane (p = 0.55 and 0.61, respectively). In the sagittal dimension, no statistically significant difference was seen between surgical findings and the Crass position (p = 0.14); however, a difference existed when the modified Crass position was used (p = 0.03).

CONCLUSION. Sonography reliably detects and quantifies supraspinatus tears. Both the Crass and the modified Crass positions reflected the true size of supraspinatus tears in the transverse plane. In the sagittal plane, the Crass position is the more useful to quantify supraspinatus tears because the modified Crass position overestimates the size of such tears.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				P. Robinson Sonography of Common Tendon Injuries Am. J. Roentgenol., September 1, 2009; 193(3): 607 - 618. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. J. C. M. Rutten, G. J. Jager, and J. G. Blickman From the RSNA Refresher Courses: US of the Rotator Cuff: Pitfalls, Limitations, and Artifacts. RadioGraphics, March 1, 2006; 26(2): 589 - 604. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]