Early return to work in workers' compensation patients after arthroscopic full-thickness rotator cuff repair.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to investigate the ability of patients to return to their preoperative work level and to identify functional prognostic factors in a group of Workers' Compensation (WC) patients after arthroscopic repair of full-thickness rotator cuff tears at a minimum follow-up of 1 year.


METHODS
Seventy-eight consecutive WC patients underwent arthroscopic rotator cuff repair (ARCR) and were retrospectively reviewed. Potential predictors of occupational outcomes were recorded. The primary outcomes included work level at the time of discharge, time to maximum medical improvement (MMI), and failures requiring revision rotator cuff repair. Secondary outcomes including physical examination and subjective scoring scales were also recorded.


RESULTS
Overall, 88.5% of patients (n = 69) returned to their preoperative level of work at a mean time to MMI of 7.6 +/- 2.6 months. Of the WC patients, 55 (70.5%) were followed up for purposes of assessing shoulder function, with a mean follow-up of 33.6 +/- 13.9 months. The mean American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons score at this time was 82.3 +/- 20.9, and the mean score on a visual analog scale was 1.7 +/- 2.3. An association was found between patients who underwent ARCR with open biceps tenodesis and delay in MMI (P = .01).


CONCLUSIONS
WC patients undergoing ARCR may expect a high likelihood of return to full duty at a mean time to MMI of 7.6 months. At the time of follow-up, patients reported good outcomes using validated scoring scales, but subjective outcomes remained inferior to non-WC patients based on historical controls. Alcohol use was the only prognostic factor to show a significant association with return to restricted-duty employment and repair failure.


METHODS
Level IV, therapeutic case series.
Bhatia
Sanjeev
S
Section of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery, Division of Sports Medicine, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA.
Piasecki
Dana P
DP
Nho
Shane Jay
SJ
Romeo
Anthony A
AA
Cole
Brian J
BJ
Nicholson
Gregory P
GP
Boniquit
Nicole
N
Verma
Nikhil N
NN
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001182:Arthroscopy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009790:Occupations; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular; D020127:Recovery of Function; D012086:Reoperation; D017006:Rotator Cuff / Q000601:surgery*; D000070636:Rotator Cuff Injuries; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014938:Work Capacity Evaluation; D014942:Workers' Compensation