PATHOLOGY OF CALCAREOUS TENDINITIS AND SUBDELTOID BURSITIS

Abstract

IN THIS paper we shall describe the gross and microscopic appearance of the lesions found in the rotator cuff of the shoulder in the condition commonly termed subdeltoid bursitis with calcification. We shall also describe briefly the changes which occur in the walls of the bursa and occasionally in some of the adjacent muscles in this condition but shall make no attempt to describe other types of lesions which may occur in the subdeltoid bursa (rupture of tendons of the rotator cuff, infections, rheumatoid-like inflammation and the dry adhesive chronic periarthritis of the shoulder). This subject has been dealt with from time to time in medical literature by various investigators, but most of the papers are clinical in character and the literature has been reviewed by Wilson 1 and will not be repeated here. Codman 2 stated that the initial lesion was a degeneration of the tendon fibers of the