Hypothesis: Preoperative pain control before arthroscopic rotator cuff repair is important.
Methods: Subjects consisted 268 shoulders in 256 patients, including 147 males and 109 females with an average age of 62 (range, 28-88), who underwent primary arthroscopic rotator cuff repair and were followed for a minimum 2 years. All patients were divided into two groups: group A, those who required steroid injection for preoperative pain control, and group B, those who did not require steroid injection. In addition, group A was divided into two subgroups: group A+, whose night pain persisted even after several steroid injections, and group A-, whose night pain disappeared before surgery. Mann-Whitney U test was used for statistical analysis.
Results: There were 151 patients in group A, including 70 A+ and 81 A-, and 117 patients in group B. Average JOA total, pain, function, and ROM score were 92.8, 26.3, 19.7, 26.5 in group A+, 97.9, 29.3, 19.9, 28.7 in group A-, and 97.7, 29.3, 20.0, 28.4 in group B, respectively. In addition, 27.1% of group A+ also demonstrated postoperative night pain. However, only 8.6% of group A- demonstrated postoperative night pain. Furthermore, postoperative ROM scores of group A- at 6, 9, 12, and 24 months after surgery were respectively significantly better than those of group A+.
Conclusion: Preoperative pain control is important in arthroscopic rotator cuff repair and the presence of preoperative night and rest pain adversely affects postoperative functional outcomes.
