This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) CME: Take the activities for this article: Shoulder/Elbow Test 20: Fall 2007 (publication date November 15, 2007; expi... Sports Test 12: Fall 2007 (publication date November 15, 2007; expiration d... [Supplementary Material] Letters to the Editor: Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when Letters to the Editor are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services E-mail this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to My File Cabinet Download to citation manager Rights and Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Kartus, C. Articles by Resch, H. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Kartus, C. Articles by Resch, H. Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Long-Term Independent Evaluation After Arthroscopic Extra-Articular Bankart Repair with Absorbable Tacks

A Clinical and Radiographic Study with a Seven to Ten-Year Follow-up

¹ City Physiotherapy, Strandgatan 2, SE-461 31 Trollhättan, Sweden
² Department of Orthopaedics, NÄL Hospital, SE-461 85 Trollhättan, Sweden. E-mail address: juri.kartus{at}vgregion.se
³ University Hospital, A-5020 Salzburg, Austria

Investigation performed at University Hospital, Salzburg, Austria

Disclosure: In support of their research for or preparation of this work, one or more of the authors received, in any one year, outside funding or grants of less than $10,000 from the Research and Development Department at the Norra Älvsborg County Council, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the NÄL Hospital. Neither they nor a member of their immediate families received payments or other benefits or a commitment or agreement to provide such benefits from a commercial entity. A commercial entity (Smith and Nephew) paid or directed in any one year, or agreed to pay or direct, benefits of less than $10,000 to a research fund, foundation, division, center, clinical practice, or other charitable or nonprofit organization with which one or more of the authors, or a member of his or her immediate family, is affiliated or associated.

A commentary is available with the electronic versions of this article, on our web site (www.jbjs.org) and on our quarterly CD-ROM (call our subscription department, at 781-449-9780, to order the CD-ROM).

Methods: Eighty-one consecutive patients with posttraumatic recurrent anterior shoulder instability underwent an extra-articular arthroscopic Bankart procedure. Seventy-one (88%) of the patients were reexamined physically after a median duration of follow-up of 107 months by two independent examiners and constituted the study group. Their clinical and radiographic outcomes were documented.

Results: At the time of follow-up, twenty-seven (38%) of the seventy-one patients had experienced some kind of shoulder instability, although fifteen of them had had a new, clinically relevant shoulder injury. Eleven patients had had subluxation only, and sixteen had had redislocation. Fourteen of the twenty-seven patients had had a single episode of instability. Seven patients had undergone additional surgery to treat shoulder instability. The instability episodes occurred less than two years postoperatively in nine patients, between two and five years postoperatively in twelve, and more than five years postoperatively in six. At the time of final follow-up the median external rotation in abduction was 90° (range, 0° to 120°) compared with 95° (range, 70° to 125°) for the contralateral, uninjured shoulders (p < 0.001). Before the injury, fifty-two patients (73%) participated in overhead or contact sports, whereas thirty-four patients (45%) participated in such activities at the time of follow-up. At the time of follow-up, the drill holes used to implant the absorbable tacks were invisible or hardly visible in fifty-eight (91%) of sixty-four patients for whom radiographs had been made. A marked increase in degenerative changes was noted when follow-up radiographs were compared with the preoperative radiographs.

Conclusions: This long-term follow-up study of arthroscopic extra-articular Bankart repairs revealed an unexpectedly high number of patients with new episodes of instability. This finding led to a slight modification of the technique. Since most instability episodes occurred after two years, it is important to follow patients for a longer period of time after surgical treatment of recurrent anterior shoulder instability to identify the true recurrence rate.

Level of Evidence: Therapeutic Level IV. See Instructions to Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Facebook    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

Stanford University Libraries' HighWire Press (TM) assists in the publication of JBJS Online.
Copyright © 2007 by The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Inc. Online ISSN: 1535-1386.
The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery®, JBJS®, JB&JS®, and eJBJS® are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.