Efficacy of home exercises for symptomatic rotator cuff tears in correlation to the size of the defect

Although the outcome of surgical treatment of rotator cuff tears is well documented in the literature, less is known about the efficacy of home exercises for symptomatic rotator cuff tears in correlation to the size of the defect. A series of 30 patients (38 shoulders) with rotator cuff tears seen by ultrasonography were included in this prospective study. Rotator cuff tears were divided into partial defects (group A), full thickness tears of the supraspinatus tendon (group B), and massive rotator cuff defects (group C). Treatment consisted of a home program of stretching and strengthening exercises that were performed by the patients daily for a period of 12 weeks and controlled by a physician every 2 weeks. Range of motion, a modified constant score, and impingement signs at initial examination and after 12 weeks were compared. All groups experienced improvement in range of motion. The Constant scores improved significantly (p < 0.05) in all groups (A: 13.0 [+/- 7.9 SD], B: 13.2 [+/- 11.4 SD], and C: 17.5 [+/- 6.6 SD]). Impingement signs showed a downward trend in all groups. The results of this study show that patients with rotator cuff defects do benefit from simple home exercises independent from the size of the defect.