Cohort of Patients With a Symptomatic Rotator Cuff Tear Treated Without Surgical Repair

In accordance with national guidelines surgical repair of rotator cuff tear is the first-line strategy only in young patients, depending on tear size, fatty infiltration of rotator cuff muscles and articular status. In appropriate situations, a satisfactory result is expected in more than 80% of cases with a very good long-term outcome. On the other hand, the first-line strategy in older patients is conservative as the main objective is the treatment of pain and stiffness of the shoulder which can be achieved at least in the short-term with general and local medications and physiotherapy. In addition, poor prognostic factors such as massive tears and muscle fatty infiltration or atrophy, are more frequently present in those patients, leading to poor results of surgical treatment and a high risk of iterative tear after repair.

Because of a lack of evaluation, there is currently no identified prognostic factor of medical treatment and on the other hand no clinical situation in which a surgical repair is mandatory. Therefore, investigator designed this study as an observatory with the follow up of patients with a symptomatic rotator cuff tear treated conservatively.