Is the high incidence of shoulder pathologies a coincidence in patients having advanced stage gonarthrosis and high body index?

Abstract

Objective: Shoulder pain is usually caused by overuse of shoulder girdle. In elderly, degenerative changes are responsible from pain. In these cases, it can possible that development of shoulder pathologies coincidency with advanced gonarthrosis in high body mass indexed (BMI) patients related to movements supported by shoulder in daily life. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between advanced gonarthrosis, BMI and shoulder pathologies. Material and Methods: 122 patients included in this study whom diagnosed with advanced gonarthrosis (grade 3-4) by Kellgren-Lawrence criterias and concurrently have shoulder pathologies from 269 patients. Patients classified on their BMI indexes to four groups. All patients were evaluated with their radiologic findings and Constant-Murley shoulder scoring system. Results: Totally 122 patients were included in the study; 24 (19.7%) were male and 98 (80.3%) were female. The mean age of the patients was 69.75±4.41 years. There was no statistically significance between groups regarding to mean of age, sex and side distribution (p>0.05). There was statistically significant difference in Constant-Murley shoulder scoring system between the groups (p:0.001; p<0.05). Conclusion: In daily life, lower extremity is responsible from body movement while upper extremity is not used in this activity. But, overuse of upper extremity, especially shoulder joint increases in lower extremity pathologies. In these cases, shoulder pathologies are significantly increased in high Body Mass index and advanced gonarthrosis related to decrease in body movements and increase in shoulder based movements. It is important to evaluate clinically concurrently shoulder pathologies in these patients.