This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Study finds arthroscopic rotator cuff repair safe and effective for the younger patient

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

SAN DIEGO — Arthroscopic primary rotator cuff repair of full-thickness tears in patients younger than 45 years old provides reliable pain relief and restoration of shoulder function, according to a presentation at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, here.

“At short-term follow-up, our study demonstrates that arthroscopic cuff repair in patients under 45 results in substantial pain relief, high levels of function, restoration of motion, near normal [return] of strength and the ability to return to work,” Seth Lawrence Sherman, MD, said.

In the retrospective study, Sherman and colleagues studied 70 consecutive patients who underwent arthroscopic rotator cuff repair of full-thickness tears at two institutions prior to September 2009. Fifty-three patients (75.7%) with a mean age of 37.5 years were available for follow-up at a mean of 35.8 months. Eleven percent of patients had prior procedures, which included diagnostic arthroscopy, acromioclavicular joint reconstruction and acromioplasty.

Exclusion criteria included revision procedures, partial-thickness tears and less than 12-month follow-up. Follow-up examinations included range of motion testing and clinical outcome measures including Single Assessment Numeric Evaluation (SANE) and American Shoulder and Elbow Society (ASES). Revision surgery or postoperative ASES score of less than 50 were considered failure criteria.

A total of 68.8% of the patients had a traumatic etiology, with 31.3% related to an athletic event. Concomitant procedures performed at the time of rotator cuff repair included 11 biceps tenodesis, 1 superior labral repair, 5 distal clavicle excisions and 2 anterior stabilizations. The mean postoperative SANE score was 80.8 and the postoperative ASES score was 84.5. In the 38 patients available for clinical follow-up exam, forward flexion improved from 158.7 to 168.4. No significant change in external rotation was seen postoperatively. At follow-up, no patients had undergone revision surgery. Two patients were considered failures based on poor clinical outcome.

“This is the largest clinical series on rotator cuff repair arthroscopically for patients under 45 [years]. It appears that arthroscopic rotator cuff repair for the young patient is safe and effective,” Sherman said. “These short-term results are comparable to those in the older patient population, superior to those of open procedures in a similar cohort. Longer follow-up is necessary to see if these results will be maintained over time.”

Reference:

• Lin EC, Dhawan A, Sherman SL, et al. Arthroscopic primary rotator cuff repairs in patients under the age of 45. Paper #23. Presented at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine. July 7-10. San Diego.
• Disclosure: Sherman is a consultant for Arthrex, Inc.

Follow OrthoSuperSite.com on Twitter