About 5% of athletes have revision arthroscopic posterior capsulolabral repair

Justin W. Arner

BOSTON — At the 13-year follow-up, 5.4% of contact athletes underwent revision arthroscopic posterior capsulolabral repair, according to a presenter at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine Annual Meeting.

“Return to play at the 13-year follow-up was significantly worse in patients who required revision surgery,” Justin W. Arner, MD, said during his presentation. “Overall return to sport [was] 50% vs. non-revisions [with] 94% [return to sport]. This is consistent with previous studies that contact athletes do better after posterior shoulder instability repair. Return to play at the same level was significantly worse in those patients who required revision as well.”

Arner and colleagues identified 186 contact athletes who underwent arthroscopic posterior capsulolabral repair. The minimum follow-up was 2 years. Investigators compared patients who needed revision surgery with patients who did not. Age, gender, labral and/or capsular injury, level of sport and return to sport were among the parameters assessed. Patients were also compared for glenoid bone width, bone version, labral width and labral version.

Investigators found glenoid bone width was the only significant risk factor for revision surgery. Cartilage version, labral version and bone version were not considered significant risk factors for revision surgery. Return to sport at the same level and overall return to sport were significantly worse for patients who underwent revision. There were 33% of patients who underwent revision surgery who said their surgery was not worthwhile. This was significantly higher compared to 4.5% in patients who did not need revision surgery. – by Monica Jaramillo

Reference:

Arner JW, et al. Abstract 72. Presented at: American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine Annual Meeting; July 11-14, 2019; Boston.

Disclosure: Arner reports no relevant financial disclosures.