Treatment of advanced impingement syndrome by arthroscopic subacromial decompression

The authors report a prospective study on 40 patients to investigate shoulder function after arthroscopic subacromial decompression for advanced impingement syndrome (stage II) using a posterolateral and a posteromedial portal. There were no intraoperative or postoperative complications related to the use of these portals. All patients were assessed preoperatively and at 6 months postoperatively using the Constant-Murley Score and the revised ASES Score. Before operation the mean Constant-Murley Score was 49.3. This improved to 78.2 at 6 months postoperatively (p < 0.0001). The ASES score improved from 35.6 preoperatively to 80.6 at 6 months postoperatively (p < 0.0001). Patient satisfaction, reflected by the affirmation that they would have the same operation again, was 85%. Comparison between the scoring systems using the Spearman rank correlation coefficient revealed a good correlation between the Constant-Murley score and the modified ASES score. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient for the pre- and postoperative scores was 0.995. (p < 0.0001).