Is routine coracoplasty necessary in isolated subscapularis tears?
Tacettin Ayanoğlu1, Baybars Ataoğlu2, Mustafa Özer3, Mehmet Çetinkaya4, Ahmet Yiğit Kaptan2, Ulunay Kanatlı2
1Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Yozgat City Hospital, Yozgat, Turkey
2Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Medical Faculty of Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey
3Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Meram Medical Faculty of Necmettin Erbakan University, Konya, Turkey
4Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Erzincan Mengücek Gazi Training and Research Hospital, Erzincan, Turkey
Keywords: Arthroscopy, c oracoplasty, f atty i nfiltration, r otator c uff, shoulder, subscapularis.
Abstract
simultaneous coracoplasty on postoperative clinical outcomes of patients undergoing shoulder arthroscopy due to the tear of the isolated subscapularis.
Patients and methods: The study included 53 patients (16 males, 37 females; mean age 55.8 years; range, 44 to 70 years) who underwent arthroscopic repair for isolated subscapularis tear (type 2 and type 3) with anterior shoulder pain and tenderness. All patients had a coracohumeral distance of less than 7 mm on the preoperative magnetic resonance images and a minimum follow-up period of two years. Patients were divided into two groups as group 1 including patients who underwent coracoplasty and group 2 including those who did not undergo coracoplasty. Patients were evaluated pre- and postoperatively by the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) shoulder score and the simple shoulder test (SST) score.
Results: There were no significant differences between the groups in terms of age, gender and follow-up time (p>0.05). The preoperative mean UCLA score was 19.65 for group 1 and 20.45 for group 2. The postoperative mean UCLA scores were 27.92 and 29.00, respectively. The preoperative mean SST score was 4.9 for group 1 and 5.1 for group 2. The postoperative mean SST scores were 10.0 and 9.5, respectively. Functional scores increased significantly in both groups postoperatively when compared to the preoperative values (p<0.01). However, there was no statistically significant difference in terms of the increase in UCLA and SST scores between the two groups (p>0.05).
Conclusion: We believe that concomitant coracoplasty during arthroscopic repair may not be a necessary routine in the treatment of isolated subscapularis tears.