Management of rotator cuff tears: A comparison of arthroscopic debridement and surgical repair.

In a prospective study, 87 consecutive patients with 88 chronic, full-thickness tears of the rotator cuff were randomly assigned to either open surgical tendon repair and anterior acromioplasty (50 shoulders) or arthroscopic debridement and subacromial decompression (38 shoulders). All patients were reexamined 2 to 5 years after the operation with the University of California at Los Angeles 35-Point Scale for Pain and Function of the Shoulder. The average ratings were 30.5 (rotator cuff repair) and 25.1 (arthoscopic debridement/decompression) for each group. The open surgical repair group faired significantly better than the arthroscopic debridement group (p = .0028). Thirteen required subsequent procedures, four with tendon repair and nine with decompression. Five in the decompression group experienced cuff tear arthropathy. Surgical repair of full-thickness rotator cuff tears provided results superior to those of arthroscopic debridement and subacromial decompression.