Abstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate short term outcomes and 6 months postoperative T2 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI-T2) findings after arthroscopic full-thickness rotator cuff repair (ARCR). We evaluated 17 shoulders of 16 patients (8 men, 8 women, mean age 60.6 years), 10 right and 7 left shoulders, followed-up for more than 6 months after surgery. The mean follow-up period was 12 months. During arthroscopic surgery 6 small, 7 medium and 4 large tears were repaired. The mean JOA and UCLA scores showed good clinical results after ARCR with an improvement from 61 to 93 points and 11.8 to 31.1 points, respectively. Postoperatively, MRI revealed in 4 of 17 (23.5%) shoulders a recurrent defect and the 4 re-torn cuffs included 2 medium and 2 large tears. However, significant differences in clinical results were not observed among the patients with repaired or re-torn cuffs. We believe that improvement of function and reduction of pain were obtained in patients with re-torn cuffs.
