Purpose: Arthroscopic arthroplasty for painful shoulder is not always successful. Repeated arthroscopy is sometimes discussed for patients with recurrent pain. The purpose of this work was to determine the technique and identify indications.

Material and methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 24 patients (13 men, 11 women), mean age 52 years, who underwent repeated arthroscopy after failure within 31 months of arthroscopic acromioplasty with no other intervention. Three groups were formed: group 1 (7 patients): subacromial impingement due to tendinitis with intact supraspinatus; group 2 (11 patients): subacromial impingement secondary to cuff tear; group 3 (6 patients): calcified tendinopathy. In group 1, the acromion was type 1 in three cases, type 2 in three and type 3 in one; repeated arthroscopy included complementary acromioplasty. In group 2, all patients had complementary acromioplasty; six of them with biceps tenotomy. In group 3, the remaining calcification was removed in all patients and complementary acromioplasty in three.

Results: Mean follow-up was 21 months. In group 1, outcome was satisfactory in three patients (43%), irrespective of the acromial morphology. In group 2, outcome was satisfactory in six patients (55%), including five with acromioplasty with tenotomy and only one with complementary acromioplasty alone. In group 3, outcome was satisfactory in five patients (83%); one failure was attributed to remaining calcification; acromioplasty did not influence outcome.

Discussion, conclusion: The acromion should not be considered as the principal cause of failure after first acromioplasty. In this series, only 33% of the patients who had complementary acromioplasty had a good outcome at last follow-up. Biceps tenotomy in patients with rotator cuff tears and removal of the calcium deposit in patients with calcified tenopathies should be considered first.