Professional Athlete Return to Play and Performance After Shoulder Arthroscopy Varies by Sport

Abstract

Purpose: To determine whether differences in return-to-play (RTP) rate and performance-based outcomes exist following shoulder arthroscopy in athletes from the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball League (NBA), Major League Baseball (MLB), and National Hockey League (NHL). Methods: Professional athletes from the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL who underwent shoulder arthroscopy between January 1998 and December 2016 were identified through an established review of injury reports and public archives. Sport-specific statistics were collected before and after shoulder arthroscopy for each athlete, providing a performance score. RTP was defined as the first game played postsurgery. Results: Of the 208 professional athletes who met the inclusion criteria, 167 (80.3%) returned to play following shoulder arthroscopy, with MLB players returning at a significantly lower rate than those of other sports (P < .0001). NBA players had significantly shorter recovery times (201 days; P < .01) and MLB players had significantly longer recovery times (413 days; P < .001) when compared with athletes in other sports. The mean number of seasons played after shoulder arthroscopy was 3.7, 4.7, 4.8, and 5.8 for MLB, NFL, NHL, and NBA, respectively. NBA players performed worse in their first season postoperative compared with their preoperative performance (P = .0017), but their postoperative season 2 performance returned to their preoperative performance level (P = .1893). Similarly, NHL players performed worse in their postoperative season 1 compared with preoperative performance (P = .0274), but their postoperative season 2 performance improved upon their preinjury performance level (P = .0861). Conclusions: There is a modest RTP rate among professional athletes following shoulder arthroscopy. MLB players have the longest average time to RTP and the shortest postinjury careers following shoulder arthroscopy. However, they demonstrate no significant decline in performance following their injury. Conversely, NBA players had the shortest average time to RTP and the longest post-injury career. Both NBA and NHL athletes experienced a decrease in performance in post-operative season one. Level of Evidence: Level III, retrospective comparative study.