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Shoulder calcification and surgery for calcific tendonitis.
Calcific tendinitis in the shoulder, calcium of the shoulder, or also known as supraspinatus tendon calcification
is the deposition of calcium pyrophosphate within the tendon and muscle belly of the rotator cuff.
The most common area for this is in the shoulder supraspinatus tendon critical zone.
It is prominent among Caucasians between the ages of thirty and fifty, and
at any given time affects about ten percent of the population of which the majority will be asymptomatic to
shoulder calcification.
The pathogenesis of the disease is still under debate, including blood supply and aging
of the tendon.
What is apparent is that the result is diminished vascularity in the shoulder, the thinning
of fascicles and vascular supply leading to fibrillation of
the outer fibrea and subsequent necrosis.
Although many people can be healed through more conservative measures, often recalcitrant
shoulder calcification can be managed through arthroscopic shoulder surgery debridement
of
the lesion.