Muscle Advancement During Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repair as a Treatment Option for Irreparable Rotator Cuff Tears.

Background: The management of irreparable rotator cuff tears presents a surgical dilemma. However, supraspinatus muscle advancement (MA) could be used to convert irreparable to reparable tears without requiring a graft.

Purpose: To compare the outcomes of patients with an irreparable tear who underwent rotator cuff repair with MA with those with a reparable large to massive cuff tear who underwent rotator cuff repair.

Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3.

Methods: We enrolled 62 patients who underwent rotator cuff repair for a large to massive tear between January 2020 and May 2022. Among them, 29 patients underwent an MA procedure due to an inability to repair despite releases (MA group), whereas the other 33 patients did not require the procedure (NMA group). At 1 year postoperatively, follow-up assessments including magnetic resonance imaging were performed to evaluate group outcomes.

Results: Despite there being more revision surgery cases and a poorer potential for cuff healing in the MA group, the retear rates in the MA and NMA groups were similar (31.0% vs 21.2%, respectively; = .401), as were clinical outcomes, including the visual analog scale for pain (2.9 vs 1.9; = .076), University of California, Los Angeles (27.0 vs 29.1; = .185), Constant (70.1 vs 74.9; = .063), and American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (74.5 vs 81.8; = .168) scores. Postoperative muscle power during forward elevation was weaker in the MA group than in the NMA group (35.1 vs 45.8 N; = .052), but external rotation power was comparable (49.3 vs 59.0 N; = .121). Progress in fatty degeneration of the supraspinatus was not significantly different in the 2 groups ( = .43), although the MA group showed a nonsignificant decrease in supraspinatus atrophy ( = .092) due to the lateral shift produced by the procedure.

Conclusion: The MA procedure for irreparable tears produced outcomes comparable with reparable tears, offering a valuable perspective on the efficiency of the procedure. The comparable but relatively high retear rates emphasize the need for further studies to compare with other treatment options for irreparable tears.