The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical results after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair (ARCR) for rotator cuff tears. We evaluated 11 patients (7 males and 4 females) who had one of their shoulders treated for a rotator cuff tear, using the ARCR, from February 2003 and were consequently followed-up for more than 6months postoperatively. The affected shoulder was on the dominant side in 6 patients and on the non-dominant side in 5 patients. The average age at operation was 61.5 years old (46 to 78 years old); the mean pre-operation period was 9.4 months (1 to 36 months); and the mean follow-up period was 13.4 months (9 to 19 months). We arthroscopically performed subacromial decompression and sutured the torn cuff to the greater tuberosity using suture one or more anchors, or repaired it with side-to-side sutures in U-shaped tears. We put the arm on a shoulder abduction brace for 4 weeks. For clinical follow-up, we used the Japanese Orthopaedic Association score (JOA score). The tear type was incomplete in four shoulders, small in three, medium in two, and large in two. According to the JOA score, the average total score increased from 62.5 points to 91.1 points. The average scores of pain, function, and motion improved from 9.5 to 23.6 points, from 12.4 to 19.3 points, and from 22.6 to 28.1 points, respectively. Two patients had moderate pain in ADL, and had shoulder contracture. The clinical outcome of the ARCR was almost satisfactory.
