Clinical outcomes secondary to time to surgery for atraumatic rotator cuff tears

The time from symptom onset to surgery has been shown to impact functional outcomes after repair of traumatic rotator cuff tears (RCTs), but this temporal relationship has not yet been evaluated in patients with atraumatic, degenerative cuff tears. Furthermore, it has been shown that over time, atraumatic cuff tears tend to enlarge and become more symptomatic, retracted, and atrophic-factors that have been shown to decrease success rates after repair. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the time from symptom onset to surgery and postoperative outcomes in patients with atraumatic RCTs.

We performed a retrospective cohort study of patients with degenerative, atraumatic RCTs who underwent surgery performed by 2 fellowship-trained shoulder surgeons and had at least 12 months of postoperative follow-up. These patients were divided into 2 cohorts based on the duration between symptom onset and surgery: early (<12 months) and delayed (≥12 months). The primary outcome measures included reoperation rate and failure of repair. Secondary outcomes included clinical measures of strength and range of motion and patient-reported outcome measures consisting of the Subjective Shoulder Value, visual analog scale for pain, American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons Standardized Shoulder Assessment, and Brophy-Marx Activity Scale at last follow-up.

Of the 143 patients who met the inclusion criteria, 78 (54.5%) underwent surgery within 1 year of symptom onset whereas 65 (45.5%) underwent surgery after at least 1 year. There were no differences between groups regarding demographic or tear characteristics. At final follow-up, there were no differences between the early- and late-surgery groups regarding retear rate (12% vs. 9%, P = .65), reoperation rate (5% vs. 3%, P = .54), postoperative range of motion in any plane (P > .05), strength in external rotation and internal rotation, visual analog scale pain score, or Subjective Shoulder Value. A greater proportion of the early group (61%) than the late group (46%) experienced improvement in supraspinatus strength of ≥1 grade on manual muscle testing (P = .02) and post hoc analysis.

Despite our knowledge of the natural history of chronic, atraumatic RCTs, delaying surgical treatment for 1 year or more does not appear to significantly impact postoperative outcomes. Thus, it is reasonable for physicians to recommend either conservative or surgical treatment depending on patient-specific factors and expectations.