In recent years, with the rapid development of sports medicine and arthroscopic technology, the understanding of shoulder pain has become more in-depth, and shoulder arthroscopic surgery has achieved satisfactory clinical efficacy. Common causes of shoulder pain include rotator cuff tear, acromial impingement sign, frozen shoulder, etc. Currently, there are several clinical reports. Subcoracoplasty is also one of the causes of shoulder pain, with few reports so far, and the surgical indications and methods of coracoplasty are still controversial.

To investigate the clinical character and significance of subcoracoid cyst. Methods Sixteen patients with rotator cuff tears complicated with subcoracoid cysts were treated with arthroscopic rotator cuff repair combined with coracoplasty and admitted to the specialty of sports medicine in the department of Orthopedics of the First Affiliated Hospital of the University of South China from August 2019 to June 2021 were included in the study. The coracohumeral distances were measured on MRI. Clinical data of the patients was collected before surgery and three months, six months, and 12 months after surgery. The VAS score, passive range of motion (ROM) of the shoulder, UCLA shoulder score, and DASH upper limb function score were collected.

The coracohumeral distance was (6.5±1.0) mm. The postoperative coracohumeral distance was (8.8±0.6) mm, and the subcoracoid cyst disappeared. Significant differences existed in the above indexes within the group (P<0.01) . At postoperative three months, VAS scores and passive ROM of forward flexion were significantly improved compared with those before surgery (P<0.05) . At postoperative six months, VAS scores and passive ROM were better than those before the operation (P<0.05) , and VAS scores and passive ROM of abduction and external rotation were better than those before postoperative three months (P<0.05) . The VAS score and the passive ROM at postoperative 12 months were similar at six months (P>0.05) but better than that before the operation and postoperative three months (P<0.05) . The UCLA and DASH scores were better than those before the operation (P<0.01) .

Subcoracoid cyst would be a referential indication for coracoplasty. Arthroscopic rotator cuff repair combined with coracoplasty in treating rotator cuff tear complicated with medial subcoracoid cyst has good clinical results.