Prospective registry study of 82 patients undergoing arthroscopic rotator cuff repair. Derives MCID, SCB, and PASS thresholds for pVAS, ASES, SANE, and UCLA scores at 1-year follow-up using anchor-based methods. Identifies patient and surgical factors that predict achieving each threshold.
Raw score improvement after rotator cuff repair is easy to measure but hard to interpret. A patient whose ASES goes from 40 to 58 improved by 18 points — below the MCID of 21, meaning that change may not be clinically meaningful to them.
Use these thresholds at the 1-year visit: an ASES gain of at least 21 points clears the floor of meaningful benefit; a final ASES of 78 or higher places the patient in a satisfactory symptom state. A patient below 78 at 1 year who reports dissatisfaction is telling you something real.
Flag high-risk patients early. Retear, large-to-massive tears, advanced age, and poor preoperative function all predict failure to reach meaningful benchmarks. These patients need closer follow-up and calibrated expectations before surgery.
Biceps tenodesis at the time of repair tripled the odds of reaching a satisfactory pain state. Worth factoring into your decision when a concomitant biceps procedure is on the table.
Prospective registry study of 82 patients undergoing arthroscopic rotator cuff repair. Derives MCID, SCB, and PASS thresholds for pVAS, ASES, SANE, and UCLA scores at 1-year follow-up using anchor-based methods. Identifies patient and surgical factors that predict achieving each threshold.
Raw score improvement after rotator cuff repair is easy to measure but hard to interpret. A patient whose ASES goes from 40 to 58 improved by 18 points — below the MCID of 21, meaning that change may not be clinically meaningful to them.
Use these thresholds at the 1-year visit: an ASES gain of at least 21 points clears the floor of meaningful benefit; a final ASES of 78 or higher places the patient in a satisfactory symptom state. A patient below 78 at 1 year who reports dissatisfaction is telling you something real.
Flag high-risk patients early. Retear, large-to-massive tears, advanced age, and poor preoperative function all predict failure to reach meaningful benchmarks. These patients need closer follow-up and calibrated expectations before surgery.
Biceps tenodesis at the time of repair tripled the odds of reaching a satisfactory pain state. Worth factoring into your decision when a concomitant biceps procedure is on the table.