Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy of shoulder-three-points warm needling moxibustion plus conventional rehabilitation in recovery from arthroscopic rotator cuff repair.Method Seventy patients who had undergone arthroscopic rotator cuff repair for rotator cuff injury were enrolled and randomly allocated to groups A and B, 35 cases each. Group A received conventional rehabilitation and group B, shoulder-three-points warm needling moxibustion in addition. Functional activity and pain in the affected shoulder were scored using the American Shoulder Elbow Scale (ASES), the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Shoulder Scale and the Constant-Murley Shoulder Outcome Score in the two groups before and after treatment.Result There were statistically significant pre-/post-treatment differences in the ASES, UCLA and Constant-Murley scores in the two groups (P<0.01). After treatment, the scores were higher in group B than in group A, but there was no significant difference in the UCLA function subscore (P>0.05) and a significant difference in the UCLA pain subscore (P<0.01) between groups A and B. Conclusion shoulder-three-points warm needling moxibustion plus conventional rehabilitation training can markedly promote postoperative rehabilitation and especially relieve postoperative pain in patients with rotator cuff injury. It provides a new idea for clinical shoulder rehabilitation in the future.