Telerehabilitation after arthroscopic subacromial decompression is effective and not inferior to standard practice: Preliminary results

Abstract

Results The preliminary efficacy of this telerehabilitation programme in terms of both physical and functional objective outcome measures was assessed on eight patients. Using the Constant-Murley score to evaluate functional outcome, patients in the telerehabilitation group were shown to have improved from a mean 43.50 ± 3.21 points to a mean 68.50 ± 0.86 points after 12 weeks. The physical and functional improvements in the telerehabilitation group were similar to those in the control group ( p = 0.213). There was a non-significant trend for greater improvements in the telerehabilitation group for most outcome measurements. Conclusion The results of this study provide evidence for the efficacy of telerehabilitation after shoulder arthroscopy in shoulder impingement syndrome. A telerehabilitation programme with range of motion, strengthening of the rotator cuff and scapula stabilizers exercises seems to be similar and not inferior to traditional face-to-face physiotherapy after subacromial arthroscopic decompression. Through this study, we are developing our preliminary dataset to evaluate the efficacy of telerehabilitation programmes following surgical procedures in musculoskeletal injuries and for comparison with more traditional interventions.