Post-Operative Rehabilitation Utilization after Full-Thickness and Partial-Thickness Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repair

Research Objectives: To investigate physical therapy (PT) utilization among patients after partial and full-thickness arthroscopic rotator cuff repair (RCR) in order to examine possible factors affecting post-operative complications such as re-tears and arthrofibrosis.

Design: Descriptive epidemiological study

Setting: Large de-identified national health research network (TriNetX) for healthcare organizations

Participants: Patients (n=25,721) with a diagnosis of partial or full-thickness rotator cuff tear (RCT) and arthroscopic RCR. Subgroups of partial RCT (n=13,990) and full-thickness RCT (n=11,761) were used. A subset of these patients (n=8,206) with either partial or full-thickness RCT received post-operative PT within one year of RCR.

Interventions: N/A

Main Outcome Measures: The main outcome measure was utilization of post-operative PT visits in terms of number and timing relative to arthroscopic RCR and patient demographics.

Results: Patients (n=25,721) had an average age (standard deviation, SD) of 56.3 (10.4) years and 58.0 (9.6) years in the partial and full-thickness RCT groups, respectively. Patients with partial RCT had a greater number of PT visits (mean ± SD: 6.14 ± 11.3; range: 0 – 110), compared to patients with complete RCTs (mean ± SD: 4.11 ± 9.9; range: 0 – 93; p < .001) after RCR. Female patients received more PT visits than male patients, regardless of RCT extent (p <.001). There was no significant difference in the number of PT visits across age groups (p=.211).

Conclusions: Female sex and partial tear RCR were associated with increased post-operative PT usage. PT utilization has high variability after arthroscopic RCR. More research is needed to determine impact of PT utilization on post-operative complications.

Author(s) Disclosures: None of the authors have any conflicts to disclose.