Will the rotator cuff tear again after surgery?

There has been a lot of research on what happens to people after rotator cuff surgery. These studies have shown that some people have evidence of new "re-tears" in the rotator cuff many years after surgery. Although this doesn't happen very often, it is more likely after repairs of large tears, complicated tears, and in people who are older at the time of their surgery.

This does not mean that the surgery has failed, and in fact, most people do not have any increased pain or loss of strength and motion with a re-tearing of the cuff. This is because the repair very rarely breaks down completely, and because the original surgery also enlarged the subacromial space so that the shoulder is not irritated and inflamed as easily as before surgery. Studies on people who have had their repair breakdown still report very high rates of satisfaction with the results of surgery. More than 85% of patients with a small re-tear of their cuff repair report that their pain and function is still significantly better than before the surgery.

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