Objective: To analyze the preoperative shoulder ultrasound (US) findings in patients with a diagnosis of rotator cuff (RC) tear and correlate them with the arthroscopic findings.
Methods: Retrospective analysis of a consecutive series of patients with a diagnosis of RC pathology in whom US was performed and who underwent surgery (shoulder arthroscopy). The US/arthroscopic findings were correlated with Fisher's and chi2 tests.
Results: The total number of patients was 53. We identified US/arthroscopic correlation in 22/34 cases for the total tears (64.7%) and in 7/19 cases for the partial tears (36.8%) (p = 0.048). Overall correlation (total and partial tears) was seen in 29/53 patients (54.7%). Of the 24 patients without correlation, 11 (45.8%) had ultrasound reports of tendinitis; 75% of the cases in this group had findings of partial supraspinous tear during arthroscopy (p = 0.006).
Conclusion: US shows an appropriate correlation with the diagnosis of RC total tear confirmed with arthroscopy, and the correlation is significantly lower for partial tears. In cases of an ultrasound-diagnosed lesion, such as tendinitis, most cases showed a partial tear during arthroscopy.