Prospective evaluation of postoperative compliance and outcomes after rotator cuff repair in patients with and without workersʹ compensation claims

Background tudy prospectively evaluated compliance and outcomes after rotator cuff repair in patients with and without Workersʹ Compensation claims. als and methods ecember 2007 to January 2010, 42 consecutive patients with Workersʹ Compensation claims (Work Comp group), and 50 consecutive patients without a Workersʹ Compensation claim (non-Work Comp group) underwent arthroscopic rotator cuff repair and were enrolled in this study. Compliance with a postoperative protocol of shoulder immobilization and physical therapy was documented. Patients were monitored clinically for a minimum of 12 months. s pliance with protocol was documented in 22 of 42 patients (52%) in the Work Comp group compared with 2 of 50 (4%) in the non-Work Comp group (P < .001). The Work Comp group had less improvement in preoperative to postoperative outcome scores for the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES) score (40.4 to 60.1), Simple Shoulder Test (SST) score (3.9 to 6.0) and visual analog scale (VAS) for pain (7.0 to 3.5) compared with the non-Work Comp group (ASES, 41.7 to 89.2; SST, 4.3 to 10.7; VAS, 6.2 to 0.35; P < .0001). The compliant Work Comp patients had more favorable results in final outcome scores (ASES, 73.1; SST, 7.9; VAS, 1.5) than noncompliant Work Comp patients (ASES, 48.4; SST, 4.3; VAS, 5.3; P < .0001). sions ts with Workersʹ Compensation claims demonstrated a high rate of postoperative noncompliance (52%) compared with patients without Workersʹ Compensation claims (4%) after rotator cuff repair. Those Workersʹ Compensation patients who had no evidence of noncompliance had significant improvements and more favorable outcomes than the noncompliant Workersʹ Compensation patients.