A Prospective Randomized Placebo Controlled Clinical Trial of a Rehabilitation Programme for Patients with a Diagnosis of Massive Rotator Cuff Tears of the Shoulder

Abstract

Background

This article compares an exercise regime with a control treatment for the physiotherapy management of patients with massive rotator cuff tears.

Methods

The study design was a randomized placebo controlled trial of 60 patients with radiologically confirmed massive rotator cuff tears evaluating the change from baseline to 3 months, 6 months and 12 months in shoulder function. The primary outcome measure was the Oxford shoulder score.

Results

Both the control and the intervention groups had an improvement in their Oxford shoulder scores at 3 months, 6 months and 12 months. The mean improvement at 3 months was statistically significant in favour of the experimental group (p = 0.002). The mean improvement at 6 months was also statistically significant (p = 0.008) but by 12 months there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.16).

Discussion

The rehabilitation programme for patients with massive rotator cuff tears significantly improved shoulder pain and function in the short term. These improvements in shoulder pain and function were sustained over time although the advantage of intervention against control were not.