Gait speed improvement and persistent trunk acceleration asymmetry after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair: A five-time-point exploratory study

Objectives: After arthroscopic rotator cuff repair (ARCR), unilateral upper-limb immobilization and brace removal may alter whole-body movement, whereas conventional gait measures may not fully capture postoperative movement adaptation. This exploratory study described 5-time-point changes in gait speed, step length, trunk acceleration, and bilateral mediolateral (ML) trunk asymmetry after ARCR. Methods: Twenty consecutive eligible patients with medium-sized rotator cuff tears (70.9 ± 8.4 years; 11 women) were assessed at 5 time points: Within 3 days before surgery (T1), postoperative day 1 (T2), immediately before brace removal at 4 weeks (T3), the first assessment after brace removal (T4), and 4 weeks thereafter (T5). Walking at self-selected speed was recorded using a single triaxial accelerometer fixed at L3. Main outcomes were gait speed, step length, trunk acceleration root-mean-square, and bilateral ML symmetry index (SI). One-way repeated-measures analysis of variance was used. Results: All participants completed all five assessments without missing data. Gait speed and step length were lowest at T2 and increased by T3. The ML SI peaked at T2 (median 85.1%), remained numerically elevated at T3 and T4, and decreased by T5 to a median of 26.4%. Conclusion: Gait speed and step length increased by the assessment immediately before brace removal, whereas ML trunk asymmetry remained numerically elevated across the brace-removal transition and decreased by 4 weeks after brace removal. A single L3-mounted accelerometer may provide adjunctive information beyond conventional spatiotemporal gait measures in postoperative musculoskeletal rehabilitation.