The association between a low critical shoulder angle and SLAP lesions

• Published in: Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA, 2019-12, Vol.27 (12), p.3944-3951
• Main Authors: Patzer, Thilo, Wimmer, Nina, Verde, Pablo Emilio, Hufeland, Martin, Krauspe, Ruediger, Kubo, Hannes Kenji
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age; Aged; Arthritis; Arthroscopy; Case-Control Studies; Comparative studies; Female; Humans; Injuries; Lesions; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Orthopedics; Osteoarthritis; Radiography; Retrospective Studies; Rotator cuff; Rotator Cuff Injuries - diagnostic imaging; Shoulder; Shoulder Injuries - diagnostic imaging; Shoulder Joint - diagnostic imaging; Surgery; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0942-2056; 1433-7347
• DOI: 10.1007/s00167-019-05569-1

Purpose To evaluate the critical shoulder angle (CSA), acromion index (AI) and further acromion parameters in patients with isolated SLAP lesions compared with patients without SLAP lesions. Methods Between 2012 and 2016, the CSA, AI, lateral acromion angle (LAA) and acromion slope (AS) were radiologically examined in consecutive patients > 18 years having had a shoulder arthroscopy with isolated SLAP lesion types II–IV. These were compared to controls without SLAP lesions and without (control group I) or with (control group II) complete supraspinatus tendon (SSP) tears. Results 75/103 patients with isolated SLAP lesion types II–IV with a mean age of 46.5 years (± 13.0, 18.1–76.3) were analyzed, 61% of them being male. For control, n  = 211 consecutive patients (47% male) with an intact SSP and SLAP complex and a mean age of 52.3 years (± 15.0, 18.6–88.4) and n  = 115 patients (60% male) with an intact SLAP complex but complete SSP tears, mean age 66.6 years (± 9.3, 44.7–87.9) were examined. The CSA in SLAP patients was 29.6° (± 3.5, 21.0–38.0), 33.8° (± 3.7, 25.1–46.9) in no SLAP and no SSP ( p