These authors evaluated the clinical midterm results after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair in 30 patients who were 75 years or older at a mean of 7 years after surgery.
Patients were satisfied with the surgery. Neither complications nor revision surgery occurred during the study period.
At final follow-up, the mean Simple Shoulder Test (SST) score was 10. The mean WORC index was 88%. The mean ASES score was 89 points.
The authors state, "Unfortunately, we did not evaluate tendon integrity at final follow-up. This was mainly based on the patient’s noncompliance with further time-consuming diagnostics."
Comment: In this study we cannot be sure whether the outcomes were related to the success of the surgical reattachment of the tendon. As has been well demonstrated (see this link and this link) patients with rotator cuff tears - even massive, irreparable ones - can be improved by a simple surgical procedure that does not involve an attempted repair and does not require post operative limitation of use of the arm during a healing period. To see a video of the smooth and move procedure, click on this link.
A related post is shown here:
The clinical and radiologic outcome of microfracture on arthroscopic repair for full-thickness rotator cuff tear
These authors compared clinical and radiologic outcomes of arthroscopic single-row repair augmented with microfracture (SRM) at the greater tuberosity with single-row (SR) and double-row (DR) repair in the treatment of full-thickness rotator cuff tears.
40 patients were treated by SR, 44 by SRM, and 39 by DR.
On followup MRI, the retear rates were substantial: 33%, 14%, and 36% in the SR, SRM, and DR groups, respectively.
The SRM group had significantly improved functional outcomes compared with the SR and DR groups in terms of the postoperative Constant score and visual analog scale.
However the retear had no effect on the functional outcome: improvement in the Constant scores was not significantly different between the shoulders with healed and the shoulders with retorn rotator cuffs.
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