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Improved function seen in older patients treated with arthroscopic rotator cuff repair
Charousset C. Arthroscopy. 26(3):302-309. March 2010.
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A recent study conducted by French investigators indicates that arthroscopic rotator cuff repair can lead to tendon healing and significant functional improvements in patients aged 65 year or older who have full-thickness tears.
“Our data suggest that arthroscopic repair can be considered successful for the older patient, specifically when the tear is limited to the supraspinatus tendon,” Christophe Charousset, MD, and his colleagues wrote in their study abstract.
The research appears in the March issue of Arthroscopy.
Chrousset and his colleagues assessed 88 patients with a mean age of 70 years who underwent arthroscopic rotator cuff repair during a 3-year study period. According to their abstract, approximately half of the patients had tears in more than two tendons.
Postoperatively, the investigators measured the patients’ function using the Constant Score and Simple Shoulder Test. Charousset and his colleagues also used computed tomography arthrograms taken at 6 months postoperatively to assess tendon healing, which was categorized into the following three groups:
- watertight and anatomically healed;
- watertight and partially healed; and
- non-watertight and sustaining a re-tear.
The patients were followed for a mean of 41 months.
At final follow-up, the investigators discovered significant improvements in outcomes using the Constant Scores and Simple Shoulder Test. They found that 27 shoulders showed evidence of anatomic healing and 20 shoulders were partially healed. The study also revealed a re-tear rate of 42%, according to the abstract. The investigators had 39 isolated supraspinatus tears, of which 11 sustained a re-tear.