Shoulder joint pain is a very common clinical symptom. Approximately 1%-2% of patients visit a doctor for shoulder pain each year, and symptoms usually last for many years. Acromial osteophyte is an important external cause of rotator cuff tendinopathy. Tucker, et al. proposed a special type of acromial osteophyte - Keeled Acromion which had the characteristics of being located in the center of the inferior margin of acromion, longitudinally, and downward sloping. They believed that this type of osteophyte was an important risk factor for partial rotator cuff injury on the bursal side and full-thickness rotator cuff tear. Joo Han Oh, et al. divided the acromial osteophytes into heel type, lateral traction type, anterior traction type, lateral bird beak type, anterior bird beak type and medial type. The heel type of acromial osteophytes is the most common (56%) , and the author speculates that it may be a risk factor for rotator cuff tendinopathy. However, the influences of different types of acromial osteophytes on the symptoms of patients with rotator cuff tendinopathy and the therapeutic effect of arthroscopic treatment have not been reported. As the classification of acromial osteophytes in previous studies is complicated, and some types of osteophytes are rare, it is not conducive to clinical application. Considering that the acromion extension will affect the muscle force vector direction of the middle portion of deltoid muscle (the further outside the acromion extends, the greater the upward component of the deltoid muscle, and the more prone to subacromial impingement and supraspinatus tendon degeneration) . Therefore, the lateral acromial osteophyte may promote rotator cuff tendinopathy by affecting the acromion extension. Objective To observe the effect of lateral acromial osteophytes on the clinical effect of arthroscopic acromioplasty in the treatment of rotator cuff tendinopathy.

From January 2016 to December 2016, 68 patients with rotator cuff tendinopathy underwent acromioplasty in our hospital, and the data was retrospectively analyzed. According to the patient’s shoulder X-ray examination, the acromial osteophytes were divided into two types: lateral osteophytes and anterior osteophytes. The VAS score, SF 12 score and Constant-Murley score were used before and 3 months after surgery.

Of the 68 patients, 26 were lateral type and 42 were anterior type. The VAS score, Constant-Murley score and SF 12 score of the patients with acromial osteophytes of the lateral type before surgery were significantly inferior to those of the anterior type (P<0.05) . Three months after surgery, the VAS score of the lateral type group decreased by (-3.64±0.54) , and the VAS score of the anterior type group decreased by (-2.61 ± 0.09) . In the lateral type group, the VAS score improved more significantly (P<0.05) , and the improvements of Constant-Murley score and SF 12 score were also more obvious (P<0.05) .

The morphology of acromial osteophytes affects the clinical effect of rotator cuff tendinopathy in the short term. The clinical symptoms of patients with lateral osteophytes are more severe, but the results of the surgery also improved significantly.