The COVID-19 Pandemic Shut Down Did Not Adversely Affect Outcomes of Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repair

Abstract

We investigated whether patients who received an arthroscopic rotator cuff repair (RCR) in January-March 2020 had a difference in outcomes compared to patients who received it the previous year. Institutional records were queried to identify patients who underwent an arthroscopic RCR between 1/1/19 to 3/17/19 and 1/1/20 to 3/17/20. The 2020 patients were contacted by phone in October 2022 for follow-up. Patients were divided into cohorts based on year of surgery. Demographic information, range of motion (ROM), and physical therapy were analyzed using inferential statistics. This study identified 50 and 51 patients in 2020 and 2019, who had a minimum of 1 year follow-up. Rotator cuff repairs done in 2019 had improvements in forward elevation (FE) (135º to 161º; p<0.01) and internal rotation (IR) (L4 to L1; p-value<0.01) whereas those done in 2020 did not improve their forward elevation (146º to 151º; p=0.42) or internal rotation (L3 to L2; p=0.29). Patients in 2019 completed more physical therapy sessions (2019: 25.0; 2020: 16.7; p<0.01). Patients in 2020 also experienced a significant delay from date of surgery to date of first physical therapy session (2019: 28.5 ± 11.9 days; 2020: 35.0 ± 16.5 days; p-value=0.03). Of the 2020 patients, 8% (4/50) patients did not initiate physical therapy after RCR, 16% (8/50) reported a delay in physical therapy while 44% (22/50) reported that the COVID-19 pandemic affected their recovery following RCR. At final follow up, patients reported a SANE score of 78.2 ± 12.1 on the affected shoulder, 91.3 ± 10.4 on the unaffected shoulder, a mean VAS pain score of 2.3 ± 1.8. Patients who underwent arthroscopic RCR in early 2020 had a longer delay to starting PT, did less PT overall, but still had comparable range of motion and strength at final follow-up.