Compliance with wearing an abduction brace after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair: A prospective, sensor-controlled study.

BACKGROUND

Immobilization, using a shoulder abduction brace, may be important after rotator cuff repair to achieve successful tendon-to-bone healing. Compliance with wear time is a concern.

OBJECTIVES

Therefore, the abduction brace wearing time was assessed with temperature-sensitive sensors to objectively measure the abduction brace wearing compliance rate.

STUDY DESIGN

Level of evidence I, prospective observational study.

METHODS

A temperature sensor was implanted into 54 standard shoulder abduction braces, worn by 50 patients (27 women; mean age, 56 years). At 6 weeks post-surgery, patients reported the number of hours they had worn the brace. The patient-reported and sensor data were compared, and the compliance rate (relative to the recommended wearing time) was determined, with compliance being the primary end-point and the discrepancy between the measured and patient-reported wear time being the secondary end-point.

RESULTS

Compliance was ⩾80% in 24 (48%) patients. Sensor-based compliance was lower than self-reported compliance (75% versus 96%, p ⩽ 0.001). Compliance was not predicted by age, sex, smoking, educational, employment, living status, or handedness.

CONCLUSIONS

Roughly 50% of patients did not wear the brace at least 80% of the recommended time. Self-reported compliance is significantly lower than sensor-based compliance. Compliance was not predicted by measured demographic variables.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE

This is the first study in which the abduction brace adherence of patients after rotator cuff repair was assessed by the use of a temperature-sensitive sensor. The postoperative use of these braces is questionable as the patient's abduction brace adherence is low. The self-reported wearing compliance is unreliable.