Arthroscopy for the diagnosis of shoulder pain.

Arthroscopy under anaesthesia was used to investigate 123 patients with painful shoulders. The clinical diagnosis was compared with the arthroscopic findings. Four types of rotator cuff lesions were found in which there were significant differences between sex and age. Instability detected under anaesthesia was an important cause of pain. These examinations proved valuable in the diagnosis of shoulder pain, particularly when the clinical diagnosis was uncertain.