Purpose of the study: Completely arthroscopic repair of rotator cuff tears is widely considered as the standard treatment. We reviewed a multicentric retrospective series of patients.

Material and methods: This series of arthroscopic repairs of full-thickness tears of the supraspinatus and infraspinatus were assess with the Constant score together with arthroMRI or arthroscan at one year follow-up at least. Data were analyzed with SPSS10. The series included 576 patients who underwent surgery from January 2001 to June 2003. Mean age was 57.7 years, 52% males and 60% manual laborers. Mean preoperative Constant score was 46.4/100 (r13.4). The tear was limited to the supraspinatus in 69% of patients with extension to the upper third of the infraspinagus for 23.5% and to all tendons for 7.5%. The supraspinatus tear was distal in 41.7% of patients, intermediary for 44%, and retracted for 14.3%. Arthroscopic repair was performed in all cases, with locoregional anesthesia for 60.9%. Implants were resorbable for 33% and metallic for 62.1%. Acromioplasty was performed for 92.7% and capsulotomy for 14.9%.

Results: The mean subjective outcome was scored 8.89/10. The Constant score improved from 46.3±13.4 to 82.7±10.3 with 62% of patients being strictly pain free. The force score improved from 8.5±3.7 to 13.6±5.4. Outcome was excellent or very good for 94% of the shoulders at 18.5 mean follow-up. The rate of complications was 6.2% with 3.1% of patients presenting prolonged joint stiffness, 2.7% reflex dystrophy, 0.2% infection and 0.2% implant migration. The cuff was considered normal in 55.7% of the shoulders with an intratendon addition image for 19%, i.e. 74.7% non-torn cuffs. A point leakage was noted in 9.5% with pronounced leakage in 15.7%, i.e. 25.2% recurrent tears.

Discussion and conclusion: The functional outcome obtained after arthroscopic repair of rotator cuff tears is good. Arthroscopy has the advantage of a low rate of complications yet provides good clinical and anatomic results. Age is correlated with functional outcome and healing, but should not be considered as a contraindication.

Purpose of the study: A statistical analysis of correlations between clinical outcome and anatomic results after arthroscopic repair of rotator cuff tears.

Material and methods: This multicentric series of rotator cuff tears was limited to the supraspinatus and infraspinatus. The statistical analysis searched for correlations between the clinical outcome (Constant score) and anatomic results (arthroscan and arthroMRI). The series included 576 patients, mean age 57.7 years, 52%μ males and 60% manual laborers. The tear was limited to the suprapsinatus in 69% of patients, with extension to the upper third of the infraspinatus in 23.5% and all tendons in 7.5%. The supraspinatus tear was distal in 41.7% of patients, intermediary in 44% and retracted in 14.3%. Fatty degeneration of the supraspinatus was noted grade 0 in 59.7%, 1 in 27.1%, 2 in 10.8% and 3 in 2.4%.

Results: The Constant score (46.3 preoperatively and 82.7 postoperatively) was strongly correlated with successful repair. The correlation was found for force, motion, and activity, but not for pain. The clinical outcome was correlated with extension, retraction, cleavage, and degeneration of the preoperative injury. The anatomic result was statistically less favorable for older, more extended, retracted, and cleaved tears or tears associated with fatty degeneration. Age was correlated with the extent of the initial tear and also with less favorable clinical and anatomic results. Work accidents were correlated with less favorable clinical outcome.

Discussion: The large number of anatomic controls with contrast injection facilitated demonstration of several statistically significant correlations. This enabled disclosure in a single series of evidence confirming earlier reports in the literature: repair of cuff tears improves the overall functional outcome for massive tears; the anatomic result depends on the size of the initial tear; pre-operative fatty degeneration is an important prognostic criteria; cuff healing is age-dependent.

Conclusion: Study of anatamoclinical correlations helps guide therapeutic decision making and enables the establishment of reliable prognostic criteria after arthroscopic repair of rotator cuff tears.

Purpose of the study: The aim of this study was to evaluate the anatomical and technical limits of endoscopic rotator cuff repair. Anatomical results were also compared with functional assessment of the shoulder.

Material and methods: A multicentric serie of 87 patients presenting a full thickness rotator cuff tear repaired endoscopically was retrospectively reviewed at 25.4 months (mean) post surgery. Limits of the surgical technique were studied in correlation with functional results and anatomic radiographic evaluation (arthroscans in 93 p. 100).

Results: Anatomical repair (normal thickness and no contrast in the subacromial space on arthroscan) was achieved in 83 p. 100 of the rotator cuffs with limited damage to the frontal part of the supra spinatus tendon. This percentage fell to 57.8 p. 100 in case of posterior extension of the tear to the supra spinatus tendon and further dropped to 40.8 p. 100 in case of retraction to the apex of the humeral head. Functional outcome evaluated with the Constant score was strongly related to the radiographic cuff condition (p < 0.05). For distal and anterior tears of the supra spinatus tendon, the Constant score at revision was 89.8 points in cases with anatomic repair at revision. This score fell to 75 when the rotator cuff tear was evidenced radiographically (p < 0.0001). For tears involving the entire supra spinatus tendon repaired by arthroscopy, the functional difference at revision was 8 points on the Constant scale. Objective and subjective analysis of the surgical procedure identified significant peroperative elements predictive of clinical and anatomical outcome (difficult reduction, p < 0.05; subjective degree of solidity, p < 0.0001; anatomical aspect of the repaired cuff, p < 0.05).

Discussion: A comparison of our findings with data on equivalent lesions reported in the literature suggests that endoscopic surgery for rotator cuff tears offers both functional and anatomic results equivalent to those achieved with conventional open surgery. This assumes that the surgical procedure is carried out by surgeons experienced in shoulder arthroscopy who can precisely gauge the posterior/anterior extension of the tears and the limits of the surgical technique.

Purpose: Outome after arthroscopic management of anterior instability of the shoulder has varied since the early series. The results proposed at the 1993 symposium of the French Society of Arthroscopy suggest we should be using this technique with prudence. We report here our experience with patients operated on between 1993 and 1997 who were selected on the basis of the 1993 conclusions that excluded patients with multiple recurrent instability and fractures of the anterior rim of the glenoid cavity.

Material and methods: Sixty-seven shoulders were operated on between 1993 and 1997. Mean follow-up for 58 of these shoulders (86%) was five years. These 58 patients constituted the study group. There were 31 men and 27 women, mean age 25 years, who had 30 recurrent shoulder dislocations, 12 shoulder subdislocations and 16 painful unstable shoulders. Forty-six percent of the patients participated in competition-level sports with forced shoulder movements in 39.6% of the cases. The surgical technique involved retightening the inferior glenohumeral ligament that was fixed with resorbable sutures. Immobilisation with elbow-to-body contention was strictly applied for three weeks at least followed by progressive rehabilitation exercises until renewed sports activities starting four months postoperatively.

Results: The mean overall Duplay score was 85.5 (sport 21/25; stability 18/25; mobility 24/25; pain 22/25). Outcome was good and very good in 82.7% of the patients, fair in 8.6%, and poor in 5 (recurrence). Subjectively, 55% of the patients were very satisfied, 27.5% were satisfied, 15.5% were disappointed and 1.7% were displeased. There were four complications (one infection cured with antibiotic therapy with a final score of 100 and three serious cases of capsulitis that recovered before one year). Gender, age, type and duration of instability, level of sports activity, and articular laxity appeared to affect outcome.

Discussion: The rate of failure (8.6%) is similar to that with open surgery (4.6% in the SOFCOT symposium 1999) and would be well below the rates observed in the 1993 arthroscopy series although the different patient selection does not allow valid comparison.

Conclusion: Arthroscopic stabilisation of the shoulder is a technically difficult procedure that has progressively shown its effectiveness after an appropriate learning curve and in carefully selected patients. Favourable elements include age over 20 years, competition level sports activity, recent instability, and absence of constitutional hyperlaxity.