Abstract
INTRODUCTION We review the literature and highlight the important factors to consider when counselling patients with non-traumatic rotator cuff tears on which route to take. Factors include the clinical outcomes of surgical and non-surgical routes, tendon healing rates with surgery (radiological outcome) and natural history of the tears if treated non-operatively.
METHODS A PRISMA-compliant search was carried out, including the online databases PubMed and Embase (TM) from 1960 to the end of June 2018.
FINDINGS S A total of 49 of the 743 (579 PubMed and 164 Embase (TM)) results yielded by the preliminary search were included in the review. There is no doubt that the non-surgical route with an appropriate physiotherapy programme has a role in the management of degenerative rotator cuff tears. This is especially the case in patients with significant risk factors for surgery, those who do not wish to go through a surgical treatment and those with small, partial and irreparable tears. However, rotator cuff repair has a good clinical outcome with significant improvements in pain, range of motion, strength, quality of life and sleep patterns.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 248-255 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England |
| Volume | 102 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Early online date | 3 Jan 2020 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 3 Apr 2020 |
Keywords
- Arthroscopy/adverse effects
- Humans
- Musculoskeletal Pain/etiology
- Patient Selection
- Physical Therapy Modalities
- Quality of Life
- Range of Motion, Articular
- Risk Factors
- Rotator Cuff Injuries/complications
- Rotator Cuff Tear Arthropathy/etiology
- Shoulder Joint/physiopathology
- Treatment Outcome
- TENDON
- SURGICAL REPAIR
- CONSERVATIVE TREATMENT
- FOLLOW-UP
- SLEEP DISTURBANCE
- Shoulder
- Repair
- STRUCTURAL FAILURE
- RISK-FACTORS
- Degenerative
- FULL-THICKNESS
- SHOULDER FUNCTION
- ARTHROSCOPIC REPAIR
- Impingement
- Rotator cuff tears