surgery. Arthroscopic procedures produce "satisfactory results" more than 90 percent of the time. However, 6-8 percent of patients have "incompetent" rotator cuffs because their repaired tendons either fail to heal or develop additional tears. In some cases, persistent rotator cuff type pain after surgery can be due to disease elsewhere. For example, cervical spine disease and can involve neck pain radiating into the shoulder. Suprascapular neuropathy, shoulder impingement, superior labral anterior-posterior (SLAP) tears and arthritis can all mimic rotator cuff disease and cause persistent pain that does not respond to rotator cuff surgery. Epidemiology Rotator cuff tears are among the most common conditions affecting the shoulder. A rotator cuff tear can be caused by the weakening of the rotator cuff tendons. This weakening can be caused by age or how often the rotator cuff is used. Adults over the age of 60 are more susceptible to a rotator cuff tear, with the overall frequency of tears increasing with age. By the age of 50 10% of people with normal shoulders have a rotator cuff tear. In an autopsy study of rotator cuff tears, the incidence of partial tears was 28%, and of complete rupture 30%. Frequently, tears occurred on both sides and occurred more often with females and with increasing age. Other cadaver studies have noted intratendinous tears to be more frequent (7.2%) than bursal-sided (2.4%) or articular-sided tears (3.6%). However, clinically, articular-sided tears are found to be 2 to 3 times more common than bursal-sided tears and among a population of young athletes, articular-sided tears constituted 91% of all partial-thickness tears. Rotator cuff tears may be more common in men between the ages of 50–60, though between 70 and 80 there is minimal difference across genders. In terms of the size of tears, a study compared the ages of patient to the size of tears. It was emphasized the older you are, the more massive of a tear you will have. It was found that mean age increased with larger tear sizes (small tears 59 years, medium tears 62 years, large tears 64 years, and massive tears 66 years). References This article contains text from the public domain document External links Rotator Cuff Tears. Wheeless' Textbook of Orthopedics. A description of rotator cuff tears from Wheeless' Physiotherpy program for rortator cuff tears Soft tissue disorders Overuse injuries Shoulder Injuries of shoulder and upper arm Wikipedia medicine articles ready to