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Superior Rotator Cuff Tears

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0:01

Okay, we're back.

0:02

This is the most fun I've ever had without laughing.

0:04

Drawing with all these colors is great.

0:07

I used to be an artist, but I don't know what happened.

0:10

But nothing good happened as time went on.

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I can, I can assure you of that.

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So now I'm, I'm on to shoulder week, shark week.

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I'm on to depth.

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The concept of depth is a little bit confusing.

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Because when you're dealing with round tendons,

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the concept of depth doesn't really apply.

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You know, these round tendons can split,

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they can have intrasubstance tears.

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The concept of length and width and depth is different.

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And we're going to discuss that for

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round tendons as a separate subject.

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So what we've been discussing about the

0:49

shoulder really applies to flat, broad tendons.

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Which live inside the shoulder.

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So let's do it.

0:58

Let's make another humeral head.

1:00

We need another one.

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Another humeral head, and let's

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make ourselves a rotator cuff.

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And this time I am not going to draw all the sections of

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the cuff, like the muscle section, and the myotendinous

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unit, and the cable, and the crescent, and the footprint.

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I'm just going to draw a simple yellow cuff.

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Because I want to introduce the concept of

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penetration depth.

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Now you would think depth is a pretty simple thing.

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This would be partial thickness.

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This would be full thickness.

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All the way through from the articular surface

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all the way to the superficial surface.

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And, and that, that's pretty true.

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Because that's really what the clinician cares about.

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But they also care about, you know, retraction and

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length and some of the things we've been discussing.

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But there are, there are a number of other

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modifiers that you can get into as you

2:00

become more and more sophisticated In MRI.

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Earlier on, we discussed the concept, and we're

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going to have to make our arrow thinner now.

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We discussed the concept of hidden tears, concealed tears.

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And I'm going to use the color orange to illustrate this.

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So, right here, we showed you earlier in another section,

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in another session together, we showed you a concealed

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interstitial delamination tear in That you couldn't

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see from the outside from a deltoid splitting procedure

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and you couldn't see from the arthroscopic view.

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And so we called it concealed.

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There are other places you can have concealed

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tears too, but it's so important to tell the

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clinician whether you think the tear is visible

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from approach A or from approach B or both.

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Well then it gets, it gets more complicated than that.

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Tears that are partial or full thickness,

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they can be vertical, but Like this.

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But they could also be horizontal.

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From the medial footprint to the lateral footprint.

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All the way through the footprint.

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But yet, it doesn't retract.

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Remember when you used to do the

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arthrogram and you'd see a little pinhole?

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Go out from your arthrography and go out into

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the bursal space, it was a tiny little line?

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These are the tears that frequently did that.

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So they are communicating full thickness tears.

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But they're not articular surface tears.

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You can only see them.

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from the outside if they communicate.

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Because there are still usually fibers of the foot

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plate or footprint that are attached medial to them.

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So you want to make very clear that these, this

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type of horizontal rather than vertical full

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thickness tear is a bursally communicating tear

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that goes from the humeral side to the bursal side.

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Not from the articular side to the bursal side.

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This is critical.

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For

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And a lot of these don't retract.

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These are frequently referred to as

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footplate or footprint avulsion tears.

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And when you hear avulsion you

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think, okay, something came off.

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Yeah, something did come off.

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The tendon.

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But almost never does the bone come off.

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So they are avulsions without bone.

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You have to make that clear and educate your audience.

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Now are there tears where the bone comes off?

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Let's talk about some other types of tears.

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What if we had a little tear here?

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Right next to the bare area.

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Along the articular surface.

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Let's pretend we're on the articular surface.

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My, my lines are a little bit thick.

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It looks like these two things are

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attached to each other, but they're not.

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There's a space there.

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So let's make the joint space something, Hmm.

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So you can see where the joint space ends.

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The joint space ends right there.

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So hopefully my green line shows through.

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So I've got a little articular sided tear.

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It's a partial thickness tear.

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Again, it's articular sided, but it also has an eponym.

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It has a name.

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It's called a Stas lesion.

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A supraspinatus tendon articular sided tear.

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For Stas.

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Could you have an infraspinatus, articular sided tear?

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Sure.

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Just has another eponym.

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But the one that's popular is the stoss lesion.

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And these are pretty darn common.

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Now what if your stoss lesion does this?

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I said stoss.

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I meant stoss.

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What if it does this?

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I better get back to orange so as not to confuse you.

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And myself.

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What if it does this?

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Then we've got A partial thickness, articular

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sided tear, with interstitial extension.

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Also known as partial P, articular

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sided A, interstitial INT, paint lesion.

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That's a paint.

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So you gotta, you know, you gotta

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have a little bit of length to it.

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Let's keep going, shall we?

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So, what if we had a partial thickness tear.

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That ran along the length.

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Oh, we gotta make it a little thicker, sorry.

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Along the length of the tendon.

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Maybe something like this.

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And it retracted back to here.

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But the outer half of our pancake stayed intact.

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In other words, you delaminated the entire

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deep section of the tendon and it retracted.

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That's a post lesion.

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So that would be a partial thickness.

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A partial thickness supraspinatus tendon avulsion.

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With retraction.

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A so called pasta lesion.

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Could you have it on the outside?

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Could you have the upper surface do the

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same thing and spare the deep surface?

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In other words, this portion of the cuff tears and retracts.

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But the deeper portion stays intact.

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You absolutely could.

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And you do, and that's what's

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known as a reverse pasta lesion.

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Oh, but there's more.

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You thought, oh, just, just when you

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thought it was safe to go back in the water.

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Nope.

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Here comes the tiger shark.

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something that is pretty intuitive.

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Let's make our cuff yellow again.

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And this time, we're going to

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take our tears, which are orange.

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And we've already discussed articular sided

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ones, stoss, and paint, and interstitial ones,

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like the concealed interstitial delamination,

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and then we've got bursal sided tears.

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Bursal sided tears are often very saucerized.

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In fact, some people will even use that

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word, saucerized bursal sided tear.

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If they look like little hairs and are very

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tiny and ill defined, my lines are a little fat

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for it, then we call it bursal sided fraying.

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But very often, when you have a partial bursal

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sided tear, it is at the footplate or footprint.

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That's the most common place.

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And it has a very distinct shape to it.

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It looks a little bit like a gull wing or a W.

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And that is called the gull wing sign.

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Some people use to say the bird sign.

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Some people say the W sign.

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But when you see that shape, and especially if you don't

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have high resolution, you know that you have a unique

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bursal sided tear that is probably contained and doesn't

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go all the way through and allow fibers to retract.

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So it is a sign of a partial thickness tear.

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Now let's finish with a flurry, but a

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really important thing when you are serving

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clinicians and therefore their patients.

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can't figure out whether it goes through or not.

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Whether it comes out the bursal surface.

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That happens a lot.

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Especially if you have a lot of swelling or you have

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lower field and you don't have the spatial detail.

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Well there are some indirect signs you can use.

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Like if the fibers, the yellow fibers, crimp.

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They micro retract.

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They'll do this.

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They'll wave on you.

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Or you have macro retraction where they

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just simply do this, then you know.

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But another useful sign is if you can

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see what I call the spillage sign.

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The spillage sign is when you can see the signal going

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this way, and then you see it spill on either end,

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going either medial or lateral into the bursal space.

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The mere presence of fluid is

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suggestive, but it's not diagnostic.

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But if you can connect the spillage to this hole,

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then you know you've got a full thickness tear.

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If you can't connect the spillage, if all you

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see is fluid on the outside, and you have a

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deeper tear, then you've got a decision to make.

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And a good term to use in that

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scenario is near full thickness tear.

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But when you say near full thickness tear, You

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want to always rectify it and clarify it by

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saying that it is a pinhole, or it's diminutive,

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or it's only one millimeter in diameter.

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Because a lot of those tears, which used to be

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surgical and sutured, are not surgerized anymore.

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So if you use too big a word, you know,

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near full thickness, or high grade, a lot of

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you will use the term high grade out there.

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If you use high grade, thought process

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for surgeon, high grade, knife.

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No, not a knife.

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It's deep, but it's tiny.

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So you've got to convey that message.

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You've got to separate in your head

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depth from length and retraction.

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They've all got to come together to sell

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the proper story of what should be done.

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So let's take a deep breath there.

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And we'll have at it one more time

11:51

for today,

11:52

for shoulder week or shark week.

Report

Description

Faculty

Stephen J Pomeranz, MD

Chief Medical Officer, ProScan Imaging. Founder, MRI Online

ProScan Imaging

Tags

Trauma

Shoulder

Musculoskeletal (MSK)

MRI

Bone & Soft Tissues

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