Arthroscopic locking plate removal after proximal humeral fractures.

The incidence of proximal humeral fractures increases. The locking plate osteosynthesis is a standard procedure to treat displaced proximal humeral fractures. In the mostly affected elderly patients with an osteoporotic bone structure, complication rate is still high. An implant removal is commonly required. But also younger patients often request for hardware removal. The open implant removal with a subacromial and subdeltoideal arthrolysis is an extensive secondary surgery for the patients. We present a new technique to remove a locking plate from the proximal humerus arthroscopically with all advantages of the minimally invasive surgery, and the possibility to treat concomitant intraarticular pathologies parallelly.