Large to massive rotator cuff tears are challenging to repair, although there are several options for dealing with them. Among them, superior capsular reconstruction was recently introduced as an effective procedure for retaining the static stability of the shoulder joint and preventing the progression to cuff tear arthropathy. The purpose of this technique-based article is to describe a surgic...

s everal intrinsic and extrinsic factors have been advoated in the pathogenesis of rotator cuff tears, but it is till unclear whether the origin of the tear is related to endon degeneration itself or induced by several morhologic changes. The purpose of this study is to deermine the relationship between the acromial coverge of the humeral head and the presence of a cuff ear. We evaluated 148 sh...

BACKGROUND Arthroscopic rotator cuff repair is a common procedure that is gaining wide acceptance among orthopaedic surgeons because it is less invasive than open repair techniques. However, there is little consensus on whether to employ single-row or double-row fixation. The purpose of the present study was to systematically review the English-language literature to see if there is a differenc...

INTRODUCTION Most clinically significant injuries involving the rotator cuff muscle are diagnosed and treated in a chronic setting. Those rotator cuff injuries requiring surgical repair of the tendon have a surprisingly high failure rate when analyzed with imaging; failure rates for massive tears have been reported to be as high as 80%. These failures are due in part to atrophy of the chronical...

Accounting for more than 4.5 million physician visits and 250,000 surgeries per year, rotator cuff injuries are among the most common musculoskeletal injuries in the United States [2, 3]. The cost per rotator cuff repair has been estimated as 15,306 US-dollars, resulting in an annual societal burden of almost 4 billion US-dollars in the United States [3]. With the growing number of rotator cuff...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of all available level I randomized controlled trials comparing single-row with double-row repair to statistically compare clinical outcomes and imaging-diagnosed re-tear rates. METHODS A literature search was undertaken to identify all level I randomized controlled trials comparing structural or clinica...

BACKGROUND The use of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is an innovative clinical therapy, especially in arthroscopic rotator cuff repair. The purpose of this study was to compare the clinical improvement and tendon-to-bone healing with and without PRP therapy in arthroscopic rotator cuff repair. METHODS A systematic search was done in the major medical databases to evaluate the studies using PRP th...

BACKGROUND Few studies of large-to-massive contracted rotator cuff tears have examined the arthroscopic complete repair obtained by a posterior interval slide and whether the clinical outcomes or structural integrity achieved are better than those after partial repair without the posterior interval slide. METHOD The study included forty-one patients with large-to-massive contracted rotator cu...

Rotator cuff tears have a high recurrence rate, even after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair. Although some biomechanical evidence suggests the superiority of the double-row vs the single-row technique, clinical findings regarding these methods have been controversial. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the double-row repair method results in a lower incidence of recurrent tearin...

An all-arthroscopic repair of the subscapularis tendon has seen signifi cant interest in the past 10 years. As we refi ne our knowledge and arthroscopic techniques in repairing other rotator cuff tears, we are now more capable of addressing subscapularis tears in an all-arthroscopic fashion as well. Th e main advantages of an all-arthroscopic repair of the subscapularis tendon are smaller incis...