Early surgical intervention yields good clinical results in the treatment of rotator cuff tear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of duration of symptoms on the outcome of operatively treated non-traumatic rotator cuff tears.

A prospectively collected cohort of 311 shoulders with arthroscopically repaired non-traumatic rotator cuff tears was analysed. The patient data were gathered to an electronic database. The Constant score was used as an outcome measure and was measured preoperatively, and at 1 year after the operation.

Three hundred and five patients (136 females, 169 males) were available for final follow-up (dropout rate 2 %). The mean age of females was 60 years (SD 8.8), and for males, it was 59 years (SD 7.9). The mean size of the rotator cuff tear was 21.2 mm (SD 15.3). The absolute mean pre- and post-operative Constant score was 50.4 (SD 14.5) and 71.3 (SD 13.8) (p < 0.001) in women and 58.5 (SD 16.6) and 79.3 (SD 14.0) (p  < 0.001) in men, respectively. The mean waiting time was 22 months in women (SD 11.8) and 23 months in men (SD 12.3). The waiting time correlated with the preoperative age- and tear size-adjusted Constant score in women (r = 0.29, p < 0.0001) and in men (r = 0.32, p < 0.0001). The waiting time did not correlate with the post-operative age- and tear size-adjusted Constant score in women (r = −0.04, p = 0.6410) nor in men (r = 0.115, p = 0.1413).

We found no correlation between the waiting time and the outcome of operatively treated non-traumatic rotator cuff tears.