Skilled reaching test for shoulder function assessment in a rat model of rotator cuff tear: a pilot study

Abstract

Background Functional assessments are crucial to evaluate treatment outcomes in clinical and animal studies on rotator cuff injuries. While gait analysis is commonly used to assess animal models of rotator cuff tears, it is less relevant for human patients as the human shoulder is typically assessed in a non-weight-bearing condition. The present study introduces the skilled reaching test as a shoulder functional assessment tool for rats, which allows for evaluation without weight bearing. Methods In the control group, 8 male Sprague–Dawley rats received rotator cuff tear surgery without repair. In the rotator cuff repair group, 20 rats received rotator cuff repair at 4 weeks post rotator cuff tear. For the skilled reaching test, rats were trained to extend their forelimbs to fetch food pellets, and the number of trials, number of attempts and the success rate were recorded. The gait analysis and skilled reaching test were performed at baseline, 4 weeks post-tear, 1, 2, 4, and 8 weeks post-repair. The repeated measures analysis of variance was used to evaluate the effects of time on the shoulder function. The significance level was set at 0.05. Results The skilled reaching test required 216 h to conduct, while the gait analysis took 44 h. In the rotator cuff repair group, gait performance significantly deteriorated at 1 week post-repair and restored to 4 weeks post-tear levels at 4 weeks post-repair. Regarding the skilled reaching test, the number of attempts, number of trials and the success rate decreased at 1 week post-repair. Subsequently, there was a brief rebound in performance observed at 2 weeks post-repair, followed by a continued decline in the number of attempts and trials. By 8 weeks post-repair, only the success rate had restored to levels similar to those observed at 4 weeks post-tear. Conclusion The skilled reaching test can detect functional deficiencies following rotator cuff tear and repair, while it requires high time and labour costs.