Fatty Infiltration, Tear Size, and Retraction Size Are Significant Risk Factors for Retear Following Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repair: A Systematic Review

Purpose To assess the consistency and quality of risk factor reporting for rotator cuff repair (RCR) retear and identify risk factors most frequently associated with retear. Methods A systematic review with PRISMA guidelines was performed. Of the initial 3,158 titles, a total of 31 studies met the following inclusion criteria: (1) clinical studies regarding RCR failure, (2) arthroscopic procedures involving RCR, (3) reporting clinical outcomes (4) performed within 5 years (5) and studies investigating pre-operative risk factors for retear. After full-text review, 18 risk factors were analyzed. Results The most consistently significant risk factors were acromiohumeral distance (AHD) (80%), critical shoulder angle (CSA) (67%), tear size (63%), anterior/posterior (AP) dimension (60%), fatty infiltration (FI, 58%), and retraction size (56%). FI was analyzed using different methods between studies with 63% finding significant results and 50% of all studies performing ordinal analysis. Tear size was inconsistently analyzed quantitatively or qualitatively, with 58% finding significant results and 63% of all studies analyzing quantitatively. Risk factors consistently found to be non-significant included age, sex, diabetes mellitus (DM), symptom duration, hand dominance, repair technique, smoking and body mass index (BMI). Conclusions Tear size, fatty infiltration, and retraction size were found to be significant risk factors in the majority of included studies evaluating rotator cuff retear. Risk factors less likely reported as predictive included repair technique, age, sex, DM, symptom duration, hand dominance, repair technique, smoking, and BMI. Risk factors that require further investigation include CSA, AHD, and AP tear dimension.Level III, systematic review of Level III-V studies