The results of open acromioplasty in impingement syndrome--a retrospective study.

Many published reports have reported generally good results of open acromioplasty in shoulder impingement syndrome. This paper studied retrospectively the results of open acromioplasty done in the Singapore General Hospital. A total of 23 open acromioplasties performed on 22 patients with shoulder impingement syndrome were studied. The post-operative results of the acromioplasties were evaluated using the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) shoulder scoring system. With the UCLA shoulder scoring system, results were excellent or good in 14 (60.8%), fair in 7 (30.5%) and poor in 2 (8.7%). At the same time the male sex was identified to have statistically significant better results as compared to the females. There was a trend towards poorer results in those at or above 50 years of age, duration of symptoms of less than 2 years and those with acromiohumeral distance of less than or equal to 1.0 cm. The presence of rotator cuff tears and the duration of follow-up were found not to have any bearing on the post-operative outcome. This procedure seems to be reasonably effective and safe. Careful patient selection and early post-operative rehabilitation with physiotherapy is of utmost importance.