Objectives. To report the five-year results of a randomised controlled trial examining the effectiveness of arthroscopic acromioplasty in the treatment of stage II shoulder impingement syndrome. Methods. A total of 140 patients were randomly divided into two groups: 1) supervised exercise programme (n = 70, exercise group); and 2) arthroscopic acromioplasty followed by a similar exercise programme (n = 70, combined treatment group). Results. The main outcome measure was self-reported pain as measured on a visual analogue scale. At the five-year assessment a total of 109 patients were examined (52 in the exercise group and 57 in the combined treatment group). There was a significant decrease in mean self-reported pain on the VAS between baseline and the five-year follow-up in both the exercise group (from 6.5 (1 to 10) to 2.2 (0 to 8); p < 0.001) and the combined treatment group (from 6.4 (2 to 10) to 1.9 (0 to 8); p < 0.001). The same trend was seen in the secondary outcome measures (disability, working ability, pain at night, Shoulder Disability Questionnaire and reported painful days). An intention-to-treat analysis showed statistically significant improvements in both groups at five years compared with baseline. Further, improvement continued between the two- and five-year timepoints. No statistically significant differences were found in the patient-centred primary and secondary parameters between the two treatment groups. Conclusions. Differences in the patient-centred primary and secondary parameters between the two treatment groups were not statistically significant, suggesting that acromioplasty is not cost-effective. Structured exercise treatment seems to be the treatment of choice for shoulder impingement syndrome

Objectives

The aim of this study was to determine whether there is any significant difference in temporal measurements of pain, function and rates of re-tear for arthroscopic rotator cuff repair (RCR) patients compared with those patients undergoing open RCR.