Does vitamin C supplementation improve rotator cuff healing? A preliminary study

Martel M, Laumonerie P, Girard M, Dauzere F, Mansat P, Bonnevialle N · European Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery & Traumatology

The only randomized test of vitamin C on human tendon healing. Non-healing on the Sugaya ultrasound classification was 11% with vitamin C against 23% without — a difference in the direction the cofactor biology predicts, and not statistically significant (p=0.2). Clinical outcomes, mobility, Constant score and subjective shoulder value did not differ. Two published letters dispute how the authors framed that p value.

Population

Patients undergoing arthroscopic rotator cuff repair at a single centre, ultrasound follow-up at 6 months

Intervention

500 mg/day vitamin C orally for 45 days after surgery

Comparator

No supplementation

Limitations

The control arm received no supplementation rather than a placebo, so nothing is blinded and expectation is uncontrolled. Underpowered for a 12-point difference in healing rate, which the authors acknowledge by calling it preliminary. Tendon-to-bone healing is not cartilage.