Rheumatoid arthritis is associated with increased symptomatic acromial and scapular spine stress fracture after reverse total shoulder arthroplasty.

BACKGROUND

The purpose of this study was to determine factors associated with early symptomatic acromial and scapular spine fractures in patients who underwent reverse total shoulder arthroplasty (RTSA).

METHODS

We retrospectively evaluated all RTSAs performed by the senior author between 1/1/2013 and 6/1/2019. We evaluated patient demographics including gender, age, prevalence of comorbidities including osteoporosis, inflammatory arthritis, diabetes, and endocrine disorders such as hypothyroidism. We also evaluated preoperative and 2-week postoperative radiographs for center of rotation medialization (CORM) as distance between the center of the humeral head or glenosphere and the line of the deltoid, and distalization via the acromial-greater tuberosity distance (AGT). We evaluated inter- and intra-rater reliability via intraclass correlation coefficients.

RESULTS

We included 335 RTSAs with a minimum of 3 months of follow-up in the analysis. Reliability was acceptable with all intraclass correlation coefficients> 0.75. Symptomatic acromial and scapular spine stress fractures were significantly more common in those with inflammatory arthritis than those without (18% vs. 5%, P = 0.016). The rate of fracture was highest in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (24% vs. 5.2%, P = 0.003). There was no statistically significant association between symptomatic fractures and preoperative CORM or AGT (P = 0.557, P = 0.528) or postoperative CORM or AGT (P = 0.56, P = 0.102). There also was no statistically significant correlation between symptomatic stress fracture and patient age, gender, BMI, smoking, osteoporosis, gout, medical comorbidity, or previous shoulder surgery.

CONCLUSION

In this retrospective analysis of postoperative RTSA, symptomatic acromial and scapular stress fractures were significantly more common in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and thus precautions should be taken in these patients.