Risk factors for symptomatic rotator cuff tears: a retrospective case-control study

Jinlong Zhao; Lingfeng Zeng; Guihong Liang; Minghui Luo; Weiyi Yang; Jun Liu; Jianke Pan

doi:10.3389/fmed.2023.1321939

Risk factors for symptomatic rotator cuff tears: a retrospective case-control study

Front Med (Lausanne). 2024 Jan 4:10:1321939. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2023.1321939. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Jinlong Zhao^#^{1

2

3}, Lingfeng Zeng^#^{1

2

3}, Guihong Liang^#^{1

2

3}, Minghui Luo^#², Weiyi Yang^#², Jun Liu^#^{3

4

5}, Jianke Pan^#²

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndrome/The Second Clinical College of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China.
² The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine (Guangdong Province Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine), Guangzhou, China.
³ The Research Team on Bone and Joint Degeneration and Injury of Guangdong Provincial Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
⁴ The Fifth Clinical Medical College of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China.
⁵ Guangdong Second Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital (Guangdong Province Engineering Technology Research Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine), Guangzhou, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: The incidence and diagnostic rate of rotator cuff tears (RCTs) have increased significantly. The purpose of this study was to investigate and analyze the risk factors for symptomatic RCTs to provide a basis for their prevention and treatment.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the relevant clinical indicators of 193 randomized clinical trial (RCT) patients and 161 non-RCT patients hospitalized with shoulder pain as the main complaint from January 1, 2017, to August 31, 2021. Univariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the differences in potential risk factors between the two groups.

Results: Univariate analysis revealed that age (p < 0.001), body mass index (BMI) (p = 0.036), hypertension (p < 0.001), coronary heart disease (p = 0.028), history of shoulder trauma (p < 0.001), hyperlipidemia (p = 0.025), type III acromion (p = 0.012) and critical shoulder angle (CSA) (p < 0.001) increased the risk of RCTs. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that age ≥ 60 years (OR = 2.61, 95% CI = 1.23 to 5.12), CSA ≥ 35° (OR = 4.24, 95% CI = 1.60 to 11.22), hypertension (OR = 2.34, 95% CI = 1.33 to 4.11) and history of shoulder trauma (OR = 5.20, 95% CI = 2.87 to 9.45) were independent risk factors for symptomatic RCTs.

Conclusion: The results of this study showed that age ≥ 60 years, CSA ≥35°, hypertension and history of shoulder trauma are independent risk factors for symptomatic RCTs and can provide directions for further development of prevention and treatment strategies. Future studies need to clarify the mechanism underlying the association between these risk factors and symptomatic RCTs.

Keywords: logistic regression; retrospective; risk factors; rotator cuff tears; symptomatic.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was funded by the Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Guangdong Province (Nos. 20231109 and 20225025), Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangzhou (No. 2023A03J0238), the Science Technology Research Project of Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine (YN2020MS16 and YN2019ML08), Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (Nos. 2022A1515220131 and 2023A1515012626), the Research Fund for Zhaoyang Talents of Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine (No. ZY2022YL21) , and the National key research and development program (2021YFC1712804).