History of rotator cuff surgery

Abstract

IV.

Rotator Cuff Tears : Short- and long-term aspects on treatment outcome

“…Rotator cuff tears, including arthropathy, have been described in ancient Egyptian mummies in a computer tomography study of whole bodies of 45 mummies 86 . The first description of a rotator cuff tear was by Monro in 1788 and the first repair was performed by Karl Hüter in 1870 230 . A landmark publication, describing open cuff repair in some detail, was by Codman in 1911 51 .…”

“…A landmark publication, describing open cuff repair in some detail, was by Codman in 1911 51 . Codman sutured the avulsed tendon to the tendon stump, but in the following years transosseous sutures became the preferred method, if patients were operated on at all 230 . The majority of patients with cuff tears have, until recent decades, probably been treated entirely nonoperatively, some with physiotherapy and many probably without specific treatment.…”

“…The joint and the subacromial space is filled with isotonic fluid through an arthroscopic pump. The very first joint arthroscopy was performed by Nordentoft in Denmark, who used a laparoscope in a knee in 1912 230 . Burman tried to use arthroscopy in the shoulder in cadavers in 1931 32 , but it was not until the late 80s that shoulder arthroscopy came into more widespread use.…”

“…Even if this probably is a cost-effective procedure from a societal point of view 182 , there is controversy over appropriate treatment 70 and we need to know more when making clinical decisions. Perthes (1906) and Codman (1911) described the very first rotator cuff repairs more than 100 years ago 230 , but the most frequent treatment strategy for a symptomatic cuff tear has probably been non-operative up until recent decades. With the advents of better imaging techniques and refined surgical techniques, the rates of cuff repairs have increased.…”

Tendon-Derived Stem Cells for Rotator Cuff Repair

“…However, an overall high re-tear rate remains [5][6][7]. Although patients with failed RC repairs can experience outcomes comparable with those after successful repairs, sometimes additional therapies or reinterventions are required [8,9].…”