External rotation lag sign revisited: Accuracy for diagnosis of full thickness supraspinatus tear

Hypothesis tudy reassessed the sensitivity and the specificity of the external rotator lag sign (ERLS) for diagnosis of supraspinatus tears in a large cohort of patients. als and methods LS was used to assess 401 consecutive patients with 406 painful shoulder conditions. The clinical diagnosis was controlled either arthroscopically or by open surgery. s olated full-thickness supraspinatus tears, the ERLS had a sensitivity of 56% and a specificity of 98%. When the lesion involved the infraspinatus and the teres minor the sensitivity improved substantially. There was a strong correlation between the extension of the tear and the amount of the lag. The lag increased from 7° for an isolated rupture of the supraspinatus tendon to 26° in case of extension to the teres minor. sion LS is highly specific and acceptably sensitive for diagnosis of full-thickness tears, even in case of an isolated lesion of the supraspinatus tendon. of evidence 2; Prospective cohort treatment study.