Revision rotator cuff repair associated with return-to-work barriers
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Published results showed 44% of patients on workers’ compensation who underwent revision rotator cuff repair struggled to return to work in full capacity.
Tyler A. Luthringer, MD, and colleagues from Rothman Orthopaedic Institute performed a retrospective review of data on 25 patients (27 shoulders; mean age of 54 years) who underwent arthroscopic revision rotator cuff repair (RCR) while on workers’ compensation between January 2010 and April 2021.
According to the study, outcome measures included return-to-work capacity, reoperations, American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons scores and single alpha numeric evaluation (SANE) scores. Luthringer and colleagues noted 67% of the patients (18 shoulders) had a job that required manual labor, 11% of patients (three shoulders) were sedentary workers and 22% of patients (six shoulders) had a job that required both manual and sedentary labor. They noted 81% of patients (22 shoulders) had the surgery performed on their dominant shoulder.
Overall, mean time to return to work was 6.7 months. At an average follow-up of 35.4 months, 56% of patients returned to work at full capacity; 22% of patients returned to work with permanent restrictions; and 22% of patients could not return to work in any capacity. According to the study, 35% of manual laborers and 30% of all patients changed their occupation following the surgery.
Researchers found a reoperation rate of 37% and a symptomatic retear rate of 48%. Among patients who did not undergo reoperation, mean ASES scores improved from 37.8 to 69.4 and mean SANE scores improved from 51.6 to 57.
“This data is helpful for surgeons when counseling patients about expectations and return to work after revision RCR in this challenging population,” the researchers wrote in the study.
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