A Comparison of Two Adjunctive Treatments in Arthroscopic Cuff Repair
Rotator Cuff Tear
About this trial
This is an interventional treatment trial for Rotator Cuff Tear focused on measuring rotator cuff tear
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria:
- Patients who have failed standard non-surgical management of their rotator cuff tear, and who would benefit from a surgical repair of the cuff.
- Failed medical management will be defined as persistent pain and disability despite adequate standard non-operative management for 6 months.
Medical management will be defined as:
- The use of drugs including analgesics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
- Physiotherapy consisting of stretching, strengthening and local modalities (ultrasound, cryotherapy, etc)
- Activity modification
- Imaging, and intra-operative findings confirming a full thickness tear of the rotator cuff.
Exclusion Criteria:
- Characteristics of the cuff tear that render the cuff irrepairable: fatty infiltration in the muscles grade III (50%) or greater; superior subluxation of the humeral head; retraction of the cuff to the level of the glenoid rim.
- Partial thickness cuff tears.
- Significant shoulder comorbidities e.g. Bankart lesion, osteoarthritis
- Previous surgery on affected shoulder e.g. Previous rotator cuff repair.
- Patients with active worker's compensation claims
- Active joint or systemic infection
- Significant muscle paralysis
- Rotator cuff tear arthropathy
- Charcot's arthropathy
- Significant medical comorbidity that could alter the effectiveness of the surgical intervention (eg. Cervical radiculopathy, polymyalgia rheumatica)
- Major medical illness (life expectancy less then 1 year or unacceptably high operative risk)
- Unable to speak or read English/French
- Psychiatric illness that precludes informed consent
- Unwilling to be followed for 1 year
- Advanced physiologic age
Sites / Locations
- The Ottawa Hospital
Arms of the Study
Arm 1
Arm 2
Experimental
Active Comparator
Soft Tissue Trephination
Bone Trephination
Ten days prior to the standard rotator cuff repair, a trephination procedure will be carried out. The trephination procedure will take approximately 30 minutes to complete and will be carried out under local anesthesia. A needle will be placed through the skin over the shoulder and either into the bone or into the edge of the cuff tendon, depending on whether you are allocated to the "bone trephination" or "soft tissue trephination" groups. The needle will be used to make 6 small holes in either bone or the tendon in the shoulder in the area where the cuff is to be repaired.
Ten days prior to the standard rotator cuff repair, a trephination procedure will be carried out. The trephination procedure will take approximately 30 minutes to complete and will be carried out under local anesthesia. A needle will be placed through the skin over the shoulder and either into the bone or into the edge of the cuff tendon, depending on whether you are allocated to the "bone trephination" or "soft tissue trephination" groups. The needle will be used to make 6 small holes in either bone or the tendon in the shoulder in the area where the cuff is to be repaired.