MUSCULOSKELETAL
REVIEWED BY Deborah Carmody, AFASA ASA SIG: Musculoskeletal REFERENCE
A systematic temporal assessment of changes in tendon stiffness following rotator cuff repair
Reviewer: Authors: Lisa Hackett, Ryan S Ting, Patrick H Lam, George AC Murrell Journal: J Ultrasound Med. 2023;42: 1799-1808 Open Access: Yes READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
WHY THE STUDY WAS PERFORMED Rotator cuff disorders are a common cause of shoulder pain and discomfort, and surgical repair of the rotator cuff is one of the most common upper limb surgeries performed. There is a high incidence of retear after surgical repair of the rotator cuff, prompting the need to understand the healing process and material changes in the tendon. Shear-wave elastography (SWE) can be used to quantify tissue stiffness. Bone is a stiff structure and has high shear-wave velocity and low shear-wave displacement. Tissues such as muscle bellies or adipose tissues are less stiff and have low shear-wave velocity and high shear-wave displacement. Tendon stiffness is in between bone and adipose tissue. The stiffness of uninjured tendons should be greater than those of tendinopathic tendons. The paper aimed to evaluate whether there were changes in time (over one year) in supraspinatus tendons post arthroscopic rotator cuff repair in terms of: • stiffness (using SWE) • thickness • the relationship between tendon stiffness and thickness
HOW THE STUDY WAS PERFORMED The supraspinatus tendon of 50 participants who had surgically repaired rotator cuff tendons (single-row inverted mattress arthroscopic repairs) was sonographically assessed using longaxis B-mode imaging and acoustic radiation force imaging (ARFI) SWE (at three regions: adjacent to, 3 mm medial and 6 mm medial to the tendon footprint, all 2 mm posterior to the long head of biceps brachii tendon). Participants were assessed at six time points by a single sonographer: 1, 6, 12, 24 and 52 weeks, postoperatively.
Making waves
JANUARY 2024 | 7
