Abstract
Introduction Traumatic shoulder dislocations at a young age result in a significant re-dislocation rates and lead to chronic instability. Conservative treatment fails in 25% to 96% of cases especially in young active patients. The accepted standard treatment is the classical open Bankart repair. Re-dislocation rate could be decreased to 3.5% to 14.9% but almost always results in loss of motion. The development of new techniques and devices has lead to an increase in arthroscopic techniques for shoulder stabilisations.
Methods Between September 1996 and October 2000, 262 arthroscopic shoulder stabilisations were performed by one surgeon (ABI). For the refixation of the injured labrum suture anchors were used. In 159 cases FASTak (Arthrex) titanium anchors, in 26 cases Panalok (Mitek) and in 57 cases Suretac (Smith and Nephew) were used. The minimum follow-up was 12 months with a mean follow-up of 24.9 months (12 to 50). Exclusion criteria were SLAP and HAGL lesions, glenoid fractures, the inverted pear sign and hooked or posterior dislocations. Rowe score and a visual analogue scale were used to measure patient satisfaction.
Results The Rowe score increased to 83.1 +/− 20.9. The visual analogoue score demonstrated overall patient satisfaction. The redislocation rate was five percent, three percent having a history of adequate trauma. Complaints of subluxations and ongoing instability occured in six percent. Eighty-nine percent of the patients could return to sports with 68% being able to return to their previous sports level.
Conclusions This study demonstrates that arthroscopic shoulder stabilisation is comparable to the golden standard of open Bankart repair.
The abstracts were prepared by Mr Jerzy Sikorski. Correspondence should be addressed to him at the Australian Orthopaedic Association, Ground Floor, William Bland Centre, 229 Macquarie Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia.
None of the authors have received any payment or consideration from any source for the conduct of this study.
