Effects of steroid injection during rehabilitation after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair

ABSTRACT

Background@#This study aims to compare the clinical outcomes of steroid injections during the rehabilitation period after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair (ACRC). @*Methods@#Among patients who underwent ARCR, 117 patients who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were enrolled. Pain and rangeof motion (ROM) recovery at the 3-, 6-, and 24-month follow-up visits and functional outcome at the 24-month follow-up were comparedbetween 45 patients who received ultrasound-guided subacromial steroid injection at postoperative week 4 or 6 and 72 patients who didnot. Functional outcome was assessed using the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES) score and Constant score. Healing of therepaired tendon and retear were observed at the 6-month follow-up via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT)arthrography. @*Results@#At the 3-month follow-up, the steroid injection group showed lower visual analog scale scores than the control group (p<0.05) andshowed faster recovery of forward flexion and internal rotation (p<0.05). From the 6-month follow-up, the two groups did not show differences in pain and ROM, and the ASES score and Constant score also did not significantly differ at the 24-month follow-up. The two groupsdid not differ in retear rate as determined by MRI or CT arthrography at the 6-month follow-up. @*Conclusions@#This study demonstrated that ultrasound-guided subacromial steroid injection at 4 or 6 weeks after ARCR leads to quick painreduction and ROM recovery until 3 months after surgery. Therefore, subacromial steroid injection is speculated to be an effective and relatively safe method to assist rehabilitation.