Acromioplasty in the surgical operations of partial-thickness rotator cuff tears: A comprehensive review

The partial-thickness rotator cuff tears (PTRCTs) are known as a prevalent pathology, which cause inability mostly in athletes. So far, a number of treatments have been suggested depending on patient characteristics and size and location of the tears. Surgical repair in rotator cuff tears that include 50% or more of the tendon thickness is the accepted practice in the following failure of nonoperative treatment. In the surgical procedure, acromioplasty is known as a long-established component and used to modify the detrimental acromion morphology, which accounts for rotator cuff tearing. A range of trials has been reported that compare the results of surgical procedure with and without acromioplasty in patients undergoing rotator cuff repairs. According to the findings of 15 studies including ~1,500 patients, with mean age 60 years (range 5–80 years) and mean follow-up of 22 months (range 13–26 months) found by searching on Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials databases, Excerpta Medica/Embase, and Medline/PubMed, we revealed that acromioplasty cannot present an impressive effect on patient outcome scores at intermediate and short-term follow-ups. In fact, despite the theoretic advantages of acromioplasty in the setting of PTRCTs, it has reported little or no efficacy on outcomes of postoperative patients.