The aim of this study was to evaluate the length of surgical neck of the humerus in relation to rotator cuff tears. The study was performed on left shoulder images of 37 male subjects. Left shoulder magnetic resonance images (MRI) of 17 subjects with rotator cuff tears, composed of 10 subjects with partial rupture and 7 subjects with whole rupture, were compared with the normal MRI images of 20 subjects. The length of the surgical neck of the humerus was measured using Digimizer software. The data was evaluated with SPSS 13.0 software. The data regarding the measurements of the transverse line taken from the surgical neck of the humerus were analyzed with the independent samples t-test. The mean length of the surgical neck of the subjects with muscle rupture and the healthy control group were 9.50 mm and 12.04 mm, respectively. The difference between the groups was statistically significant (p<0.05). The length of the surgical neck of the humerus is suggested to play a role in rotator muscle tears.
Keywords: Rotator muscle rupture, humerus, surgical neck, linear measurement, magnetic resonance
