Summary

Compared to the standard rehabilitation, the aquatic therapy did not yield superior clinical and functional outcomes after arthroscopic RCR when started immediately after the surgery.

Abstract

Background

Postoperative rehabilitation following rotator cuff tear repair (RCR) is important to promote tendon healing, restore strength, and recover normal function. Aquatic therapy in hot water allows body relaxation, which promotes patient conditioning for efficient rehabilitation. Purpose: To assess whether aquatic therapy is more efficient than standard (land-based) rehabilitation in terms of range of motion (ROM), function, and pain after arthroscopic RCR. Hypothesis: The hypothesis was that aquatic therapy would provide faster recovery than standard rehabilitation. Methods: We prospectively randomized 86 patients scheduled for arthroscopic RCR to either aquatic therapy (n=44) or standard rehabilitation (n=42) using block sizes of four or six. Patients were evaluated clinically at 1.5, 3, 6, and 24 months and using ultrasound (US) at 6 months. Two-way mixed ANOVA tests were performed to evaluate the effects of rehabilitation type (between-subjects factor) on ROM and patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) over time (within-subjects factor). Post-hoc inter-group comparisons at each time point were also conducted using Wilcoxon rank sum tests or unpaired Student t-tests and adjusted for multiple comparisons using the Bonferroni correction. Results: The two groups did not differ significantly in terms of demographic data or pre-operative characteristics, except for the Single Assessment Numeric Evaluation (SANE) score which was lower in the aquatic therapy group (37.9±23.6 vs. 55.6±24.9, p=0.019). The mixed model revealed the absence of interaction effect between the type of rehabilitation and time on PROMs and ROM except on the SANE score (p<0.001), which was biased by the existing pre-operative difference mentioned above. Furthermore, none of the post-operative outcomes were statistically different between the two groups at 1.5, 3, 6, and 24 months. No significant difference could be also noted regarding tendon healing rate (p=0.443), complication (p=0.349), workstop duration (0.585) or patient satisfaction (p=0.663). Conclusion: Compared to the standard rehabilitation, the aquatic therapy did not yield superior clinical and functional outcomes after arthroscopic RCR when started immediately after the surgery.