This retrospective comparative study asks whether all-arthroscopic and mini-open rotator cuff repair produce different clinical outcomes. It compares 54 patients with full-thickness cuff tears using a modified ASES score. The two groups were matched for age, activity, mechanism, and tear size.
When you counsel a patient about arthroscopic versus mini-open cuff repair, this study supports the message that short-term function is equivalent. The decision comes down to surgeon skill and comfort, not a proven outcome gap. Both techniques improved pain, satisfaction, and function across tears from 1 to 12 cm2. Tear size alone does not force you into an open approach.
Note that 58% of these patients needed additional procedures for biceps, labral, or AC joint pathology. Plan for concurrent pathology rather than treating cuff repair as an isolated operation.
Read this as Level III evidence. Selection bias (smaller tears in less active patients went arthroscopic) and the absence of imaging on tendon healing mean it shows equivalence in symptoms, not equivalence in structural repair integrity.
This retrospective comparative study asks whether all-arthroscopic and mini-open rotator cuff repair produce different clinical outcomes. It compares 54 patients with full-thickness cuff tears using a modified ASES score. The two groups were matched for age, activity, mechanism, and tear size.
When you counsel a patient about arthroscopic versus mini-open cuff repair, this study supports the message that short-term function is equivalent. The decision comes down to surgeon skill and comfort, not a proven outcome gap. Both techniques improved pain, satisfaction, and function across tears from 1 to 12 cm2. Tear size alone does not force you into an open approach.
Note that 58% of these patients needed additional procedures for biceps, labral, or AC joint pathology. Plan for concurrent pathology rather than treating cuff repair as an isolated operation.
Read this as Level III evidence. Selection bias (smaller tears in less active patients went arthroscopic) and the absence of imaging on tendon healing mean it shows equivalence in symptoms, not equivalence in structural repair integrity.