Partial rotator cuff injury in athletes: bursal or articular?

A painful shoulder is a very common complaint among athletes, especially in the case of those in sports involving throwing. Partial lesions of the rotator cuff may be very painful and cause significant functional limitation to athletes' sports practice. The incidence of partial lesions of the cuff is variable (13-37%). It is difficult to make the clinical and radiological diagnosis, and this condition should be borne in mind in the cases of all athletes who present symptoms of rotator cuff syndrome, including in patients who are diagnosed only with tendinopathy.

To evaluate the epidemiological behavior of partial lesions of the rotator cuff in both amateur and professional athletes in different types of sports.

We evaluated 720 medical files on athletes attended at the shoulder service of the Discipline of Sports Medicine at the Sports Traumatology Center, Federal University of São Paulo. The majority of them were men (65%). Among all the patients, 83 of them were diagnosed with partial lesions of the rotator cuff, by means of ultrasonography or magnetic resonance, or in some cases using both. We applied the binomial test to compare the proportions found.

It was observed that intra-articular lesions predominated (67.6%) and that these occurred more frequently in athletes in sports involving throwing (66%). Bursal lesions occurred in 32.4% of the athletes, predominantly in those who did muscle building (75%).

Intra-articular lesions are more frequent than bursal lesions and they occur predominantly in athletes in sports involving throwing, while bursal lesions were more prevalent in athletes who did muscle building.