Improvement of Sleep Disturbance After Rotator Cuff Repair Occurs at 3 Months

Rotator cuff tears (RCTs) are highly prevalent and can have a detrimental effect on the sleep quality of affected patients. However, several studies have shown improvement of sleep after rotator cuff repair (RCR).

To look at the timeline of sleep improvement after RCR in patients with RCTs.

Systematic review; Level of evidence, 3.

PubMed, Cochrane, and Google Scholar (pages 1-20) were queried through October 2024. Inclusion criteria consisted of studies that compared the number of patients with sleep disturbances before and after RCR. The compared outcomes consisted of the number of patients with disturbed sleep preoperatively and 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year postoperatively. Sleep disturbance was evaluated either by a patient-reported binary outcome indicating the presence or absence of sleep disturbance or by a validated objective sleep assessment score such as the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index or numeric rating scale.

Nine retrospective studies (based on 8 cohorts), 3 prospective studies, and 1 randomized controlled trial met the inclusion criteria. When studies compared patients with or without sleep disturbances as a binary outcome, a significant improvement in sleep was seen at 3 months (OR = 6.41; 95% CI, 5.01 to 8.22; P < .001), 6 months (OR = 10.64; 95% CI, 7.43 to 15.25; P < .001), and 1 year after RCR (OR = 1.71; 95% CI, 1.41 to 2.09; P < .001). However, when studies looked at the improvement in the sleep assessment scores, improvement in sleep disturbance was seen at 6 months (SMD = 2.97; 95% CI, 1.70 to 4.25; P < .001) and 1 year after RCR (SMD = 0.75; 95% CI, -0.59 to 2.08; P = .27).

The present study shows that improvement in sleep disturbances in patients with RCTs occurred as early as 3 months after RCR. Future studies looking at the various factors related to the disturbance and improvement of sleep in patients with RCTs are needed.