COMPARISON OF OPEN AND ARTHROSCOPICALLY ASSISTED ROTATOR CUFF REPAIRS

Open rotator cuff repair has shown reliable results in terms of pain r elief and improved shoulder function. Recently, however, arthroscopica lly assisted rotator cuff repair has shown promising preliminary resul ts. We compared the results of these two procedures with regard to pai n, function, range of motion, strength, patient satisfaction, and retu rn to previous activity. Thirty-seven rotator cuff repairs were evalua ted in 36 patients with a minimum followup of 2 years. The open repair group comprised 20 shoulders with an average followup of 3.3 years; t he arthroscopically assisted repair group comprised 17 shoulders with an average followup of 3.2 years. Overall, the open repair group had 8 0% good-to-excellent results and 88% patient satisfaction, and the art hroscopically assisted repair group had 85% good-to-excellent results and 92% patient satisfaction. Shoulder flexion and abduction strength, the size of the tear repaired, and the functional outcome did not dif fer significantly between the two groups. In general, however, small a nd moderate-sized tears (<3 cm) had better functional outcome with art hroscopically assisted repair. The arthroscopically assisted repair gr oup was hospitalized 1.2 days less and returned to previous activity a n average of 1 month earlier. In the surgical treatment of symptomatic complete rotator cuff tears, arthroscopically assisted rotator cuff r epair is as effective as open repair.