Schemitsch C, Chahal J, Vicente M, et al. - Researchers intended to contrast the efficiency of surgical repair to conservative treatment and subacromial decompression for the treatment of chronic/degenerative tears of the rotator cuff. Six studies were involved. In comparison with conservative treatment and subacromial decompression alone, surgical repair led to a statistically significantly better Constant–Murley Score (CMS) at one year. In the conservatively treated group, 11.9% of patients gradually crossed over to surgical repair. In conclusion, for degenerative rotator cuff tears in older patients, surgical repair leads to significantly enhanced outcomes in comparison with either conservative treatment or subacromial decompression alone. Nonetheless, in outcomes between surgery and conservative treatment, the magnitude of the variation may be small and the "success rate" of conservative treatment may be high, allowing surgeons to be cautious in selecting those patients who are most prone to profit from surgery.