Alteration and recovery of arm usage in daily activities after rotator cuff surgery

Abstract

This study provided new information on arm recovery after rotator cuff surgery using an innovative measurement method. It highlighted that objective arm underuse measurement is a valuable indicator of upper limb postsurgical outcome that captures a complementary feature to clinical scores.

Assessment of Kinematics and Electromyography Following Arthroscopic Single‐Tendon Rotator Cuff Repair

“…Our comparison group was selected and screened from a significantly younger population so as to avoid asymptomatic tears. Previous studies have shown a prevalence of asymptomatic tears in older populations [25,26]. Hawkes et al performed a comparison of muscle activation between RC and healthy groups with an age difference similar to that in our groups.…”

Wearable systems for shoulder kinematics assessment: a systematic review

“…Quantitative evaluation of arm usage and quality of movements in every kind of shoulder impairment contributes to outline a clinical picture about the functional recovery and the effectiveness of the treatment [30, 49]. Using the same number of IMU ( n = 3) and the same placement on both humeri and sternum, the shoulder function was evaluated before and after treatment, in patients underwent surgery for RC tear [5, 34]. Results showed significative differences in movements frequency between patients and control group during activities of daily life [5], with limited use of arm at 3 months after surgery [34].…”

“…Using the same number of IMU ( n = 3) and the same placement on both humeri and sternum, the shoulder function was evaluated before and after treatment, in patients underwent surgery for RC tear [5, 34]. Results showed significative differences in movements frequency between patients and control group during activities of daily life [5], with limited use of arm at 3 months after surgery [34]. With a bilateral configuration based on 5 IMU, shoulder motion was assessed to extrapolate relevant clinical outcomes about Total Shoulder Arthroplasty (TSA) and Reverse Total Shoulder Arthroplasty (RTSA) [6].…”

“…Most of the reviewed articles limited the application of wearable systems in short-time session for shoulder motion evaluation; only few studies performed longer monitoring periods of ADLs until 7 or 11 monitoring hours of 1 day [5, 6, 34].…”

Need for Digital Biomarkers in Musculoskeletal Trials

“…The resulting data provide a wealth of additional data points, may decrease the need for follow-up visits, and may serve as a base for complex data processing such as movement pattern analyses. Successful applications include quantification of significant changes in gait quantity and quality under a constrained environment [7], recovery of shoulder function after rotator cuff repair [8] and prediction of falls with accelerometry-based balance quantification [9]. The combination with either data such as vital signs but also positioning data adds meaning to the pure biomechanical data.…”