Rotator Cuff Tendinopathies with Calcifications

Abstract

Rotator cuff tendinopathies are the commonest cause of painful shoulder syndromes in persons of middle age. In primary conditions, the disease process begins in the tendon, while the pathologic changes in secondary tendinopathies are either an extension of diseases from contiguous structures or a manifestation of a systemic disease. Not all of the tendinopathies are necessarily associated with calcification. In Table I, we have classified rotator cuff tendinopathies indicating the mechanisms which induce them, their sites of predilection, and associations with calcification. Calcification is the event that characterizes the condition in calcifying tendinitis. Among the degenerative forms of primary tendinopathies, one of the cardinal features of enthesopathy is deposition of calcium at the area of tendon attachment to the bone that may eventually become bony excrescences or enthesophytes [1]. On the other hand, the reported incidence of calcification in rotator cuff tear varies from less than 10% to 23% [2].