The Relationship Between the Duration and the Retraction and Atrophy Levels in Traumatic Isolated Full-Thickness Supraspinatus Tears in Young Patients

Abstract

Abstract Background The study aimed to determine the level of retraction and atrophy according to the time elapsed in traumatic isolated full-thickness supraspinatus (SS) tears in young patients. Methods One thousand twenty-six patients, who underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery, were retrospectively reviewed. Pre-operative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of 69 patients aged 18 to 40 years with isolated traumatic full-thickness SS lesions remaining after exclusion criteria were evaluated for tendon retraction and atrophy levels. SS retraction was determined from a T2-weighted oblique coronal MRI section, and the atrophy level was determined from the T1-weighted oblique sagittal MRI section. The patients were divided into four groups 0–1 month, 1–3 months, 3–6 months, and 6–12 months according to the time between trauma and MRI. The relationship of tendon retraction and muscle atrophy with elapsed time was evaluated, in addition, comparisons between groups were made. Results Thirty-one (45%) of the patients were female and their mean age was 30 ± 7.3 (18–40) years. The mean age of men was 30.5 ± 6.9 (18–39) years (p = 0.880). The time between rupture and MRI was moderately correlated with retraction and strongly correlated with atrophy levels (r = 0.599, .751, respectively). It was observed that there was a statistically significant difference between the 1st (0–1 month) and 2nd (1–3 months) groups (p = 0.003, .001, respectively), and between the 2nd and 3rd (3–6 months) groups (p = 0.032, .002, respectively), but there was no significant difference between the 3rd and 4th (6–12 months) groups (p = 0.118, .057, respectively). In addition, there was a moderate correlation between tendon retraction and atrophy levels (r = 0.668). Power (1- b) in post hoc analysis was calculated as 0.826. Conclusions In traumatic full-thickness SS tears, the moderate positive correlation between the time elapsed after trauma with the level of retraction, and a strong correlation with the level of atrophy showed the importance of early surgical repair in young patients.