Massive rotator cuff tears are not necessarily synonymous with irreparable tears. Technical and biological challenges to a successful repair include inelastic poorquality tendon tissue, scarring, muscle atrophy, and fatty infiltration. Fatty infiltration of the involved rotator cuff muscles has been identified as an important negative prognostic factor for the outcome after repair of massive ro...

INTRODUCTION: Rotator cuff tears are a very common source of pain and loss of function of the shoulder. As arthroscopic instrumentation and repair techniques have evolved, many studies have demonstrated success in repairing rotator cuff tears using these arthroscopic techniques alone compared with an open repair method. Despite these successful clinical outcomes, both open and arthroscopic rota...

The purpose of this systematic review was to address the treatment of rotator cuff tears by applying tissue engineering approaches to improve tendon healing, specifically platelet rich plasma (PRP) augmentation, stem cells, and scaffolds. Our systematic search was performed using the combination of the following terms: "rotator cuff", "shoulder", "PRP", "platelet rich plasma", "stemcells", "sca...

BACKGROUND Degenerative rotator cuff tears are a significant cause of shoulder pain in the aging population. Rotator cuff repair surgery may be more successful when growth factors are delivered to the repair site. This study was designed to determine the cellular processes involved in normal bone-to-tendon healing and the current approaches used for biologic augmentation of rotator cuff repair....

BACKGROUND/AIMS The rate of healing failure after surgical repair of chronic rotator cuff tears is considerably high. The aim of this study was to investigate the function of the zinc finger transcription factor early growth response 1 (EGR1) in the differentiation of tendon stem cells (TSCs) and in tendon formation, healing, and tendon tear repair using an animal model of rotator cuff repair. ...

Background/objective Rotator cuff tears are common shoulder injuries. Various forms of rotator cuff tears are observed by arthroscopy. Inverted flap tears of the rotator cuff, however, also occur. The aim of the present study was to determine the preoperative characteristics of inverted torn cuffs and clinical outcomes after arthroscopic repair. Methods Seventeen patients (10 men, 7 women; me...

Rotator cuff tears are a ubiquitous cause of shoulder pain and disability. Full thickness rotator cuff tears are present in 19-21% of the general population, and their prevalence increases with age. The incidence of this problem is exacerbated by the ever advancing age of our patient population. Thankfully, with advances in arthroscopic rotator cuff repair, this has become a treatable problem w...

BACKGROUND After reinsertion on the humerus, the rotator cuff has limited ability to heal. Growth factor augmentation has been proposed to enhance healing in such procedure. PURPOSE This study was conducted to assess the efficacy and safety of growth factor augmentation during rotator cuff repair. STUDY DESIGN Randomized controlled trial; Level of evidence, 1. METHODS Eighty-eight patient...

Transosseous repair of the rotator cuff has been shown to recreate the anatomic rotator cuff footprint in a secure and cost-efficient manner. However, the potential for sutures cutting through bone remains a concern with this strategy. Devices have been used successfully during open transosseous rotator cuff repair to augment the bone tunnels, potentially avoiding suture cut-out through the wea...

PURPOSE To evaluate the effectiveness of early and delayed motion in rehabilitation after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair using a meta-analysis from randomized controlled trials. MATERIALS AND METHODS Electronic searches of the CENTRAL, PUBMED, and EMBASE were used to identify randomized controlled trials that evaluated the effectiveness and safety of early and delayed motion for rehabilitat...