Arthroscopic repair of Non Traumatic Small to Medium Sized Full Thickness Rotator Cuff Tears with and without Acromioplasty

Abstract

Abstract Background The shoulder joint has the greatest range of motion of any other joint. Pain of the shoulder joint is very common and accounts for about 16% of musculoskeletal disorders taking the third place after spine and knee. Rotator cuff disorders including degeneration or tear are most common causes of chronic shoulder pain. Causes of rotator cuff tear (RCT) still unclear and occur as a result of many factors. As degenerative changes of the rotator cuff that occur in old age increase the risk of rotator cuff tear also overhead workers and athletes considered a risk factor. Objective To evaluate the role of acromioplasty in arthroscopic repair of small to medium sized full thickness tear of rotator cuff according to the complication rate, the active range of motion and the function scores of the shoulder to add surgeons in deciding whether acromioplasty must be done routinely during arthroscopic repair of rotator cuff or not. Patients and Methods During the period between February 2019 and May 2022, A Prospective, Randomized Controlled Clinical trial was conducted in Ain Shams University hospital in Cairo. This study was designed to involve 36 cases with symptomatic small to medium sized RC tear, the patients were separated into two groups of 18. Group A comprised those applied with arthroscopic rotator cuff repair, bursectomy and antero- inferior acromioplasty. In Group B, arthroscopic rotator cuff repair was applied with bursectomy only and no acromioplasty. Each patient in this study was carefully assessed clinically by taking a detailed medical history and adequate clinical examination. Results There was a significant difference between the pre-operative and post-operative ASES score, WORC score and ROM but according to postoperative evaluation regarding ASES score, WORC score and ROM there was no statistically significance between the group of acromioplasty and the group of non-acromioplasty. Regarding complications, 3 cases of study population (36) cases were complicated, one case in group A (frozen shoulder) and 2 cases in group B (frozen and revision). With respect of the literature, the results were comparable to that of the literature as regard the functional outcome and complication rate. Conclusion The result of this study showed that there may be no need for routine application of acromioplasty during arthroscopic rotator cuff repair as it has concerns being less cost effective. We acknowledge that the cost was not assessed in our study. However, they are intuitive. Also, more long term follow up studies are required to assess the incidence of retear in rotator cuff repair without-acromioplasty as controversy is still present in the literature.