Arthroscopic Treatment of Rotator Cuff Tears

Rotator cuff tears are the primary cause of shoulder pain and functional impairment, accounting for 50% to 85% of shoulder disorders. With the acceleration of population aging in China and the increasing demand for sports brought about by the improvement of economic standards, rotator cuff tears have gradually become a significant social health problem that cannot be ignored. Currently, arthroscopic rotator cuff repair is the standard treatment for rotator cuff tears. However, studies have shown that the average re-tear rate after rotator cuff repair surgery is 26.6%, which can be as high as 95% for massive rotator cuff tears. Therefore, how to prevent the occurrence of re-tears after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair and improve surgical outcomes has become a hot spot for research in the field of shoulder arthroscopy. Based on previous clinical experience, our team developed an M-shaped suture technique for arthroscopic rotator cuff repair. Clinical observations have shown that the re-tear rate at one-year post-surgery is 8%, which is significantly lower than what has been reported in the literature. However, there is currently a lack of comparative studies on the efficacy of this technique versus traditional single-row and double-row suture techniques. Moreover, the current research evidence on the prognostic factors affecting rotator cuff repair surgery is conflicting, and there is still a lack of high-quality cohort studies to screen for risk factors for poor prognosis. This project aims to establish a high-quality ambispective cohort for minimally invasive arthroscopic surgery for rotator cuff tears, to compare the clinical efficacy of the M-shaped suture technique with traditional techniques, and to identify risk factors related to the prognosis after rotator cuff repair surgery. This will provide high-quality, real-world evidence to optimize the new suture technique and develop a clinical prediction model for re-tears after rotator cuff suture repair. In the l