Purpose
To ascertain trends and reported complication rates of arthroscopic and open or mini-open
rotator cuff repairs (RCRs) reported by American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery (ABOS)
Part II examinees between 2007-2017.
Methods
The ABOS database was queried for both arthroscopic RCR (International Classification of Diseases code 29827) and open or mini-open RCR (International Classification of Diseases codes 23410 and 23412) performed by Part II examinees from 2007-2017. A comparison
between overall procedure rates, as well as reported complications (anesthetic, medical,
surgical, reoperations, and readmissions) associated with the respective repair technique,
was performed.
Results
From 2007-2017, a total of 31,907 RCRs were reported by Part II examinees. Of those,
85.2% (n = 27,189) were arthroscopic whereas 14.8% (n = 4,718) were open or mini-open.
The rate of arthroscopic RCR increased from 73% (n = 2,138) in 2007 to 90% (n = 2,031)
in 2017, whereas the rate of open or mini-open RCR decreased from 27% (n = 771) to
10% (n = 234) during the same period. Rates of reported annual complications were
significantly lower for arthroscopic RCR (7.4%-16.2%) than for open or mini-open RCR
(12.9%-30.3%) for each of the past 6 years (2012-2017) (P < .001). Arthroscopic RCR had an overall lower cumulative occurrence of complications
than open or mini-open RCR over the past decade (2007-2017) (P < .001). The relative risk of complications for arthroscopic RCR compared with open
RCR was 0.71 (95% confidence interval, 0.66-0.77).
Conclusions
ABOS Part II examinees reported an increased practice of arthroscopic RCR in comparison
with open or mini-open RCR over the past 10 years. Reported annual complication rates
have been significantly lower for arthroscopic RCR over the past 6 years, with an
overall lower cumulative rate from 2007-2017.
Level of Evidence
Level III, retrospective cohort study.
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
June 13,
2019
Received:
February 25,
2019
Footnotes
The authors report the following potential conflicts of interest or sources of funding: The Department of Orthopaedic Surgery from our institution provided the funding for the database query. Full ICMJE author disclosure forms are available for this article online, as supplementary material.
Identification
Copyright
© 2019 by the Arthroscopy Association of North America
