Table 1.

Demographics of patients in the groups

Variable	Open	Knotted arthroscopic	Knotless arthroscopic	Open versus arthroscopic knotted*	Open versus arthroscopic knotless*	Arthroscopic knotted versus arthroscopic knotless*
Number of patients
6 months	49	52	57	NS	NS	NS
2 years	20	29	38
Male:female
6 months	21:28	24:29	28:29	NS	NS	NS
2 years	10:10	10:19	20:18
Age at surgery (years)†
6 months	58 (28–87)	64 (40–90)	59 (34–86)	p < 0.01	NS	p < 0.05
2 years	60 (48–73)	63 (79)	61 (34–86)
Time from initial injury to repair (months)†
6 months	13 (0.5–81)	7.0 (0.8–39)	6.0 (0.2–31)	p < 0.05	NS	NS
2 years	15 (0.7–81)	7.2 (1.0–39)	6.6 (0.5–31)
Affected shoulder
Right
6 months	28	38	45
2 years	9	19	30
Left
6 months	21	15	12
2 years	11	10	8
Dominant arm
6 months	32/49	40/53	43/57	NS	NS	NS
2 years	12/20	19/29	29/38
Tear size (cm2)†
6 months	4.1 (0.5–14)	3.9 (1–13.5)	3.7 (1–16.5)	NS	NS	NS
2 years	4.3 (1–14)	3.9 (1–13.5)	3.6 (1–15.75)	NS	NS	NS
Number of anchors used‡
6 months	4.0 ± 0.1 (2–8)	2.1 ± 0.7 (1–4)	2.5 ± 0.1 (1–5)	p < 0.001	p < 0.001	p < 0.01
2 years	4.4 ± 0.1 (2–8)	2.0 ± 0.7 (1–4)	2.5 ± 0.2 (1–5)
Operation time (minutes)†
6 months	60 (35–100)	55 (30–90)	41 (20–60)	NS	p < 0.001	p < 0.01
2 years	61 (35–100)	54 (30–85)	40 (20–60)
Number of retears requiring surgery
6 months	3	4	5	NS	NS	NS
2 years	4	5	7	NS	NS	NS

* Comparisons between groups using Mann-Whitney rank sum tests; ^†values expressed as means, with ranges in parentheses; ^‡values expressed as mean ± standard error of the mean, with range in parentheses; NS = no significance.