Teres Minor Muscle Atrophy

Anatomy, Patterns, and Clinical Manifestations

Abstract

• ➢ Isolated teres minor atrophy has a reported incidence in the literature of 3% to 6.2%.
• ➢ There are 2 distinct muscular bundles of the teres minor that have varying degrees of atrophy. Fatty degeneration of the medial-dorsal component exceeds that of the lateral-ventral component in most cases.
• ➢ A healthy and intact teres minor muscle is of functional importance in the setting of a complete infraspinatus tear because it becomes the only external rotator of the shoulder joint.
• ➢ Clinical and functional outcomes after rotator cuff repair and reverse shoulder arthroplasty for patients with teres minor atrophy in the setting of a rotator cuff tear are still controversial.