Rotator Cuff Repairs With and Without Acromioplasties Yield Similar Clinical Outcomes: A Meta-analysis and Systematic...

This meta-analysis reviews the current literature comparing the patient-reported outcome measures of patients who underwent rotator cuff repairs with and without acromioplasties.

A comprehensive literature search was performed using PubMed, EMBASE, and Scopus databases, obtaining 1,456 studies for the review. After the filtering process, 8 studies remained for our meta-analysis, of which 7 were prospective trials. From the included studies, the postoperative outcomes of 3,034 shoulders were studied. Data were analyzed using Mantel-Haenszel statistics and random-effect models where appropriate.

Our meta-analysis revealed that there was no significant difference in American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons scores (standardized mean difference [SMD], 0.09; 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.10 to 0.28; I² = 9%; P = .36), University of California at Los Angeles scores (SMD, 0.17; 95% CI, -0.07 to 0.40; I² = 0%; P = .17), and rate of further surgery (odds ratio, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.04 to 5.66; I² = 59%; P = .57) between the acromioplasty and nonacromioplasty groups. There was a statistical difference in the Constant score (SMD, 0.25; 95% CI, 0.02 to 0.48; I² = 0%; P = .03) of both groups. However, with the Constant score having an SMD of only 0.25, the difference in Constant score was not clinically significant.

There were no clinically significant differences in postoperative functional scores and pain scores for patients who underwent rotator cuff repairs with and without acromioplasties.

Level II, meta-analysis of Level I and II studies.