This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Shoulder arthroscopy linked with few adverse events in older patients

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

ORLANDO, Fla. — According to data presented here, older patients who undergo shoulder arthroscopy are unlikely to experience postoperative adverse events.

“Patients ask a lot of questions [regarding] what their risks are since they are [older]. This study gives us some numbers to communicate and say, ‘Overall this is still low, but here is what you may want to look out for, but overall it is still a low rate,’” William J. Rubenstein, BA, said at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting.

Investigators evaluated 7,867 patients (average age: 67.6 years; average BMI: 29.8) from the ACS-NSQIP database who were classified with CPT codes 29806, 29807, 29819, 29820, 29821, 29822, 29823, 29824, 29825, 29826, 29827 and 29828 and underwent shoulder arthroscopy between 2005 and 2013. Both severe and mild adverse events, as well as infection complications, were all noted separately. Any links between these events and patient characteristics were determined via Pearson chi-square test, and independent predictors of adverse events were determined via multivariate logistic regression analysis. Average length of the procedure was 81.3 minutes.

A minimum of one adverse advent was noted in 127 patients (1.6%). This was broken down into 90 patients (1.1%) with serious adverse events, 46 patients (0.6%) with minor adverse events and 28 patients (0.4%) with infectious complications.

Age older than 80 years of age, BMI greater than 35, functional dependency, an ASA class greater than two, an open wound at time of surgery or a history of either congestive heart failure or disseminated cancer were revealed by a multivariate logistic regression analysis to be independent predictors of adverse events at respective odds radios of 2.2, 1.8, 2.9, 1.5, 4, 6.2 and 7.9. This list was narrowed down by a univariate analysis, which removed an open wound at time of surgery and history of disseminated cancer from the patient characteristics significantly linked with severe or minor adverse advents or infectious complications. — by Christian Ingram

Reference:

Colvin AC, et al. Paper #330. Presented at: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting; March 1-5, 2016; Orlando, Fla.

Disclosure: Rubenstein reports he has no relevant financial disclosures.