No Functional Difference Between Three and Six Weeks of Immobilization After Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repair: A Prospective Randomized Controlled Non‐Inferiority Trial
Bibliographic record
Abstract
PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to compare clinical and radiologic results among patients with 3 versus 6 weeks of immobilization after arthroscopic rotator cuff (RC) repair in a prospective randomized controlled non-inferiority trial. METHODS: One hundred twenty patients were included after RC surgery for a small- to medium-sized tear of supraspinatus and upper infraspinatus tendons. Group A was immobilized in a simple sling for 3 weeks, and group B had a brace with a small abduction pillow with the arm in neutral position for 6 weeks. All patients started active range of motion when they removed the sling/brace. One hundred eighteen (98%) patients were assessed at 1-year follow-up. They underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the shoulder, filled out the Western Ontario Rotator Cuff (WORC) index, and were evaluated with a Constant Murley (CM) score. RESULTS: Statistical non-inferiority was demonstrated for the 2 groups on the basis of the WORC index, the primary endpoint at 1 year. The objective for the non-inferiority test was to determine whether the expected mean WORC index for group A was at most 13% worse than standard treatment (Group B). The WORC index at 1 year was similar in both groups, with mean percent scores of 83% in group A and 87% in group B (mean difference = -4; 95% one-sided CI -9, -4). Age-adjusted CM scores were also similar, with means of 86 in group A and 90 in group B (mean difference = -4; 95% CI -13, 5; P = .37). MRI after 1 year showed 50 (89%) patients in each group with healed RC repair. Four patients in group A had complications: 1 acute postoperative infection, 2 cases of postoperative capsulitis treated with corticosteroid injections, and 1 repeat operation because of a loose anchor and subacromial pain. No patients in group B had complications. CONCLUSION: RC repair resulted in improved postoperative shoulder function, regardless of whether the shoulder was immobilized for 3 or 6 weeks. Three weeks of postoperative immobilization with sling use was non-inferior to the commonly used regimen involving 6 weeks of immobilization in a brace with regard to the WORC index at 12 months' follow-up. MRI indicated similar degrees of healing between the groups. Based on these findings, it is safe to immobilize patients in a simple sling for 3 to 6 weeks after repair of small to medium RC tears. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level I, high-quality randomized controlled trial with statistically significant differences.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.005 | 0.006 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.004 | 0.003 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.004 | 0.003 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.005 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".