Moderate Return to Play and Previous Performance After SLAP Repairs in Competitive Overhead Athletes: A Systematic Review
Steven F. DeFroda; Amar S. Vadhera; Ryan J. Quigley; Harsh Singh; Alexander Beletsky; Matthew R. Cohn; Joseph Michalski; Grant E. Garrigues; Nikhil N. Verma
Review article · Volume 38, Issue 10, Pages 2909–2918, October 2022
Background
The question this review asked
Overhead athletes who undergo SLAP repair want to know two things: whether they will get back on the field, and whether they will play as well as they did before. This review set out to systematically examine both, looking at return to play and return to previous level of performance in competitive overhead athletes following SLAP repair.
Methods
How the review was conducted
The authors conducted a systematic review of published studies reporting return to play and return to previous performance in competitive overhead athletes after SLAP repair. Eight studies covering 333 athletes met the inclusion criteria. Results were then broken out by whether rotator cuff pathology had been surgically treated alongside the repair, by level of competition, and by playing position.
Results
What the evidence showed
Return to play across the studies ranged from 50 percent to 83.6 percent, while return to previous level of performance ranged from 35.3 percent to 64 percent. Athletes whose rotator cuff pathology also required surgical treatment returned to play at much lower rates, between 12.5 and 64.7 percent, compared with 80 to 83.6 percent for those without it. Professional athletes returned to play at rates broadly similar to high school and college athletes, but they showed the narrowest and lowest range for returning to previous performance, between 27.7 and 55.6 percent. Pitchers fared worse than position players on both measures: 62.5 to 80 percent return to play and 52 to 58.9 percent return to previous performance for pitchers, against 91.3 percent return to play and 76.3 to 78.2 percent return to previous performance for position players.
Conclusion
What it means
The studies reviewed point to moderate rates of both return to play and return to previous performance after SLAP repair in competitive overhead athletes. Two groups did notably worse than the rest: athletes with an associated rotator cuff tear that required treatment, and baseball pitchers.
