Efficacy of concomitant acromioplasty in the treatment of rotator cuff tears: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

BackgroundScientific evidence is not clear regarding the routine use of acromioplasty in the treatment of rotator cuff repair. The aim of this study was to compare clinical outcomes between patients undergoing arthroscopic rotator cuff repair with and without concomitant acromioplasty.MethodsMedline, Cochrane Library, and EMBASE databases were searched to identify eligible studies focused on arthroscopic rotator cuff repair with and without acromioplasty from January 2000 to February 2018. Postoperative functional outcomes, visual analog scale (VAS) for pain and reoperation rate were extracted for systemic analysis.ResultsSix randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and one cohort study (CS), including 651 patients, fulfilled our selection criteria. The results showed a significant difference in American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES) score, but not in the Constant score, University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) score, or Simple Shoulder Test (SST) score, in the treatment of rotator cuff tear with or without concomitant acromioplasty at the final follow-up. In the subgroup analysis, the results showed no significant differences between the two treatments in reoperation rate at the final follow-up or VAS score at 6 months postoperatively and final follow-up, but there was a significant difference in VAS score at 12 months postoperatively in favor of acromioplasty treatment. The evidence quality for each outcome evaluated by the GRADE system was low.ConclusionsIn summary, our present study demonstrated that acromioplasty treatment is significantly superior to nonacromioplasty in shoulder pain relief at 12 months postoperatively and in ASES score improvement at the final follow-up in conjunction with rotator cuff repair. However, these significant differences were not clinically relevant. Thus, there were no differences in shoulder function or pain scores for patients undergoing rotator cuff repair with and without acromioplasty. Further high-quality studies with larger sample sizes and long-term follow-ups are needed to clarify this issue.

Effect of the acromial inferolateral tilt on subacromial impingement syndrome: a retrospective magnetic resonance imaging assessment

“…Rotator cuff reconstruction may be accompanied by acromioplasty ( 25 ) . Evidence of higher risk for complete supraspinatus tendon rupture in patients with acromial inferolateral tilt accentuation may influence the orthopedists to associate acromioplasty to the reconstruction.…”

Untitled

“…However, an acromial bone spur and rotator cuff tear may not have a causeand-effect relationship but be normal age-related changes. Acromioplasty (removal of bone spurs) is not superior to an exercise programme without surgery or a placebo acromioplasty (Cheng et al, 2018;Lähdeoja et al, 2020;Lewis, 2016Lewis, , 2018Lewis, 2009a;Sun et al, 2018).…”

Settling the Controversy of Acromioplasty During Rotator Cuff Repair

“…Over the past 10 years, multiple Level-I and II systematic reviews and meta-analyses 2-4 as well as randomized controlled trials 5 have shown no difference in patient-reported outcomes or retear rates with follow-up of <8 years. Most of these studies had follow-up of 2 years and demonstrated no significant difference in the need for reoperation.…”