Midterm outcomes of arthroscopic remplissage for the management of recurrent anterior shoulder instability.

PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to present midterm results concerning the management of recurrent anterior shoulder instability with the remplissage technique in addition to the classic Bankart repair, in patients with engaging Hill-Sachs lesions.

METHODS

During a time period of 4 years (January 2007-December 2010), 48 patients with an average age of 28.9 ± 7.8 years were operated on in our department. They all had a positive apprehension sign pre-operatively and satisfied the inclusion criteria of this study. Seventy-nine per cent of these patients were involved in sport activities of different levels. The mean follow-up period was 37.2 ± 9.9 months.

RESULTS

Three patients (6.3 %) had suffered a new dislocation: one of them after a low-energy trauma and the two other after a high-energy trauma. The rest of the patients (93.7 %) were satisfied with the surgical result and returned to their previous everyday activities while 70.8 % continued to participate in sporting activities without restrictions. The ASES score increased from 67.7 ± 21.5 points pre-operatively to 90.8 ± 21.7 points post-operatively (p < 0.01), the modified Rowe score from 38 ± 17.3 to 93.8 ± 14.5 (p < 0.001) and the Oxford Instability score from 27.6 ± 11.1 to 45.1 ± 8.3 (p < 0.001). No significant restriction in shoulder range of motion was documented.

CONCLUSIONS

The outcome of the enhancement of the classic Bankart repair with tenodesis of the infraspinatus and posterior capsular plication is very good as far as the management of recurrent anterior shoulder instability is concerned, without significantly influencing the range of motion of the shoulder.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic study-case series with no comparison group, Level IV.