Shoulder Synovitis Does not Affect Pain After Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repair.

BACKGROUND: The goal of this study was to determine if there is an association between glenohumeral synovitis and early post-operative pain after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair.

METHODS: Fifty patients with symptomatic rotator cuff tears were prospectively enrolled prior to RCR. Baseline ASES score, VAS Pain score, forward elevation, and external rotation were recorded. Intra-operatively, synovitis was graded on a scale of zero to six as based on a previously validated scoring system. VAS Pain scores were obtained from patients post-operatively on days one through 14, week 6, and 3 months.

RESULTS: Average intra-operative synovitis score was 2.4 ± 1.6. No significant correlation was found between synovitis score and pre-operative forward elevation ( P=0.171 ), external rotation ( P=0.126 ), VAS Pain ( P=0.623 ), or ASES ( P=0.187 ) scores. No significant correlation was found between synovitis score and post-operative VAS Pain level at any time point. There was a moderate correlation between both pre-operative VAS Pain and ASES scores and post-operative VAS Pain in the first post-operative week. Workers' compensation patients had worse pain at 3 months post-operatively compared to non-workers compensation patients ( P=0.038 ).

CONCLUSION: This study reveals that macroscopically assessed glenohumeral synovitis does not have any significant correlation with pre-operative or post-operative pain in patients undergoing arthroscopic rotator cuff repair; although higher pre-operative pain levels, worse pre-operative ASES scores, and workers compensation status do influence post-operative pain levels in arthroscopic rotator cuff repair.