Women have poorer results with arthroscopic revision rotator cuff surgery than men

The largest study investigating arthroscopic revision repair of rotator cuff tears shows that the procedure can significantly improve pain relief and shoulder function, although women had poorer results than men who had the procedure.

“We are very excited about the results of the study,” Shane J. Nho, MD, an author of the study, stated in an American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine press release. “Until now, there had only been two reports documenting the results of arthroscopic surgery after a failed rotator cuff repair surgery. Most studies that have published on revision surgery discuss results of open revision techniques. Typically, results of open revision technique are worse than after the initial failed surgery, but the open clinical studies were performed on larger and more chronic rotator cuff tears. It is encouraging to have a study that presents a revision arthroscopic technique that can decrease pain and improve function.”

The findings are scheduled to appear in the January issue of the American Journal of Sports Medicine.

Nho and his colleagues evaluated 61 patients who underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery after a failed rotator cuff repair. They followed the patients for 1 to 2 years after the revision procedure and analyzed their results using shoulder-specific functional outcome measurements, according to the press release.

The investigators found that six patients who had two or more prior shoulder surgeries required additional procedures after revision.

“Our study also found that female patients and those who could not raise their arm to 90· to the side before the surgery were at an increased risk for poorer results,” Nho stated in the release. “We are not quite sure why the females had a worse clinical outcome; however, there are other studies that have also observed this finding.”

Reference:
www.aossm.org