title: Arthroscopic primary rotator cuff repairs in patients aged younger than 45 years.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to evaluate the mechanism of injury, patient characteristics, tear size, and clinical outcomes after arthroscopic primary rotator cuff repair of full-thickness tears in patients aged younger than 45 years.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 70 consecutive patients were reviewed in a retrospective, multicenter (2 institutions) study evaluating prospectively collected data. Fifty-three patients, with a mean age of 37.5 years (range, 16.2 to 44.9 years), were available for follow-up at a mean of 35.8 months (range, 13.8 to 59.1 months). Exclusion criteria included patients with revision procedures, repair of partial tears, and follow-up of less than 12 months. Follow-up evaluation included physical examination with dynamometer strength testing and clinical outcome measures including the Single Assessment Numeric Evaluation score, American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES) score, Constant-Murley score, pain score on a visual analog scale, and Simple Shoulder Test score.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 60% of the patients (32 of 53) had a traumatic etiology, with 38% (12 of 32) of these related to an athletic event. Of the tears, 36 (68%) were medium tears. Concomitant procedures performed at the time of rotator cuff repair included acromioplasty (51), biceps tenodesis or tenotomy (24), distal clavicle excision (10), anteroinferior stabilization (2), and labral repair (1). The mean postoperative ASES score was 84.6 (range, 21.6 to 100.0), with 2 patients recording ASES scores of less than 50 (21.7 and 41.7) at final follow-up. In the 38 patients available for clinical follow-up examination, forward flexion improved from 158.7° (range, 45° to 180°) to 168.4° (range, 120° to 180°) (P = .014). At the time of follow-up, no patients had undergone revision surgery. On the basis of poor clinical outcome scores, 2 patients (4.0%) were considered failures.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Arthroscopic primary rotator cuff repair of full-thickness tears in patients aged younger than 45 years results in improved outcomes with regard to pain, subjective patient satisfaction, and shoulder function.
  
  
  METHODS
  Level IV, therapeutic case series.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
authors.forename: Emery C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Nathan A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Mall
authors.forename: Aman
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dhawan
authors.forename: Seth L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Sherman
authors.forename: Kevin C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: McGill
authors.forename: Matthew T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Provencher
authors.forename: Gregory P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Nicholson
authors.forename: Brian J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Cole
authors.forename: Daniel J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Solomon
authors.forename: Nikhil N
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Verma
authors.forename: Anthony A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Romeo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001182:Arthroscopy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017006:Rotator Cuff / Q000601:surgery*; D000070636:Rotator Cuff Injuries; D013708:Tendon Injuries / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult