Recovery pattern after arthroscopic treatment for calcific tendinitis of the shoulder

Abstract

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to investigate serial outcomes in the early postoperative period in patients who have undergone arthroscopic treatment for calcific tendinitis of the shoulder and to determine prognostic factors affecting outcomes.

Hypothesis: Our hypothesis was that functional recovery will take more than three months but additional procedures such as rotator cuff repair and subacromial decompression will have a slower recovery and poorer outcomes.

Material and methods: We retrospectively reviewed 35 patients with a mean follow-up of 50.6 months. Arthroscopic surgery was performed in all patients. The visual analog scale (VAS) pain score; University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) score; American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES) score were evaluated preoperatively; 3, 6, and 12 months after surgery; and at the final follow-up. To evaluate the extent of calcific deposit removal and recurrence of calcification, we conducted plain radiography at each follow-up.

Results: Nine patients had complete removal of all calcium deposits, and 26 had partial removal. At the final follow-up, all patients sustained complete resorption without any recurrence. All clinical scores showed improvement significantly in each follow-up period (p<0.001). However, VAS pain score decreased to less than 3 points at 6 months after surgery, UCLA and ASES scores also increased more than 75 percent at 6 months. Subacromial decompression was negatively correlated with VAS pain score and rotator cuff repair was negatively correlated with UCLA score, respectively (p=0.041 and p=0.028). On multivariate analysis, rotator cuff repair was negatively correlated with the final UCLA score (p=0.009).

Conclusion: This study revealed that all clinical scores were significantly improved from 3 months after arthroscopic treatment for calcific tendinitis of shoulder. However, clinical scores improved slowly, recovery of shoulder function and pain relief required up to 6 months. Subacromial decompression and rotator cuff repair were poor prognostic factors after arthroscopic treatment.