Purpose
To present the long-term outcome of arthroscopic subacromial decompression (ASD) for
patients with impingement syndrome with or without rotator cuff tears as well as with
or without calcific tendinitis in a follow-up of 20 years.
Methods
We included 95 patients after a mean follow-up of 19.9 (19.5 to 20.5) years. All patients
underwent ASD, including acromioplasty, resection of the coracoacromial ligament,
and coplaning without cuff repair. The Constant score was used to assess the functioning
of the shoulder. In addition, we defined a combined failure end point of a poor Constant
score and revision surgery.
Results
Revision surgery was performed in14.7% of the patients. The combined end point showed
successful results in 78.8% of all cases. All patients with isolated impingement syndrome
achieved successful results. Those with partial-thickness tears had successful outcomes
in 90.9% of all cases, and patients with full-thickness tears had successful outcomes
in 70.6% of all cases. The tendinitis calcarea group showed the poorest results, with
a 65.2% success rate.
Conclusions
Our long-term results show that patients with impingement syndrome who received ASD,
including acromioplasty, resection of the coracoacromial ligament, and coplaning do
well 20 years after the index surgery. ASD without cuff repair even appears to be
a safe, efficacious, and sustainable procedure for patients with partial rotator cuff
tears.
Level of Evidence
Level IV, therapeutic case series.
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: October 24, 2015
Accepted:
August 11,
2015
Received:
January 5,
2015
Footnotes
See commentary on page 416
The authors report that they have no conflicts of interest in the authorship and publication of this article.
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 Arthroscopy Association of North America. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
