Patrick DenardDirector Oregon Shoulder Fellowship, Oregon Shoulder Institute · Director Oregon Shoulder Fellowship at Oregon Shoulder Institute

Why I've Backed off Slings in Rotator Cuff Repair

4 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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In this brief presentation, the speaker explains why he has moved away from the routine use of postoperative slings after rotator cuff repair. He notes that in specific situations—particularly when a double‑row repair technique is employed—clinical data demonstrate healing rates comparable to traditional sling protocols, allowing for little or no sling use. He further argues that incorporating adjunctive measures such as optimized nutrition, biologic agents, and structural augmentation can accelerate tendon healing, thereby safely reducing the duration patients spend in a sling and improving their overall postoperative experience.

Chapters

Why have I stopped recommending a sling as long as most surgeons do for rotator cuff repair? Well, in certain scenarios, especially if we have a double-row rotator cuff repair, the data actually shows that you can have as high of healing rates with having little or no sling use. So if we have that scenario, it's a good time to get rid of the sling. Secondly, if we do things like add nutrition and add biologics and consider adding structure to the rotator cuff repair, all of these things can accelerate the healing period and limit the time in sling, which is a big deal for patients.