High-Grade Bursal Side Rotator-Cuff Repair: A Surgical Outcome Review

We aimed to evaluate surgical outcomes of high-grade bursal rotator cuff-tear repairs.

This systematic review was performed in May 2020 in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines using PubMed. Inclusion criteria were English-language studies reporting the results of pain improvement, functional outcome scores, and radiographic examinations after repair of bursal side partial rotator-cuff tears at any time point in patients of any age and with all levels of evidence. Exclusion criteria were articles not in English, in vitro or animal studies, epidemiological studies, and such article types as technical notes or narrative reviews.

Of 58 articles, five were included in this study, of which three and two had level III and IV evidence, respectively, four were comparative studies, and one was a case series. Visual analogue scales were used in four of the five studies, all showing improvement in pain assessment from 5.87 preoperatively to 1.02 postoperatively. All five studies showed significant improvement on each functional outcome score at the final follow-up. The retear rate for all studies was 10.97% (27 of 246).

High-grade bursal side partial-thickness rotator cuff-tear repair gave satisfactory results in terms of pain scores, range of motion, and functional outcomes. The retear rate was still considerably high (10.9%), necessitating better understanding of the basic science, such as molecular mechanisms during adaptation, to improve the surgical technique.