ABSTRACT
Objective To observe the clinical effect of arthroscopic surgery on patients with rotator cuff tear injury. Methods One hundred and twenty patients with rotator cuff tears admitted to the Department of Orthopaedic of the First Hospital of Changsha from January 2013 to September 2015 were enrolled. Sixty patients treated with traditional conservative methods were assigned in a control group, the whole arthroscope or shoulder arthroscope was used to assist performing microsurgical incisions for another such 60 patients in the observation group. Visual analogue scale (VAS) of pain was applied to evaluate the pain of the patients with rotator cuff injury before and after treatment in both groups. The function of the shoulder joints and recovery situation were evaluated by using the shoulder functional system score and the American shoulder and elbow surgeon score (ASES). Results The results showed that all patients had no postoperative complications such as secondary fracture of the rotator cuff tear, infection, incision non-healing, etc. Compared with those before treatment, in both groups, the VAS scores were obviously lowered after treatment, while ASES and shoulder function system scores after treatment were significantly higher than those before treatment, and the changes in the observation group were more pronounced than those in the control group (VAS: 0.82±0.11 vs. 2.20±0.59, ASES: 82.21±10.81 vs. 70.53±6.21, pain score: 9.81±0.21 vs. 9.11±0.51, function score: 9.70±0.09 vs. 8.80±0.40, anterior flexion score: 4.59±0.41 vs. 4.20±0.61, all P ＜ 0.05). Conclusion The clinical effect of arthroscopic surgical treatment of patients with rotator cuff tear injury is relatively satisfactory and worthy to be deeply studied clinically.