OBJECTIVES: To evaluate microvasculature in the borders of the supraspinatus tendon in rotator cuff lesions in order to determine the need to debrid the borders when surgical repair is performed. METHODS: From June to December 224, samples were evaluated from 31 patients with full lesion of the supraspinatus tendon that had been submitted to arthroscopic rotator cuff lesion treatment. They were between 42 and 82 years of age (mean 56.6 years), nine of them male, and twenty-two female. During the procedure, samples of the rotator cuff lesion tissue were collected and sent to the anatomopathological study with hematoxylin-eosin dye. Afterwards, a counting of the vascular slits/mm² was done. The authors used as a control group ten samples of normal supraspinatus tendons from fresh cadavers that were submitted to the same procedures. Results obtained were statistically evaluated by the Mann-Whitney test. RESULTS: Of all samples, 28 presented vascularized tissues and three were not vascularized. The mean number of vascular slits/mm² in rotator cuff lesion samples was statistically higher than that of the control group. CONCLUSION: Most borders of supraspinatus tendon lesions are hypervascular.
Rotator cuff; Rotator cuff; Microcirculation; Arthroscopy
