Reconstruction of Humeral Head Defect in Locked Posterior Dislocation Shoulder. A Case Series of Nine Patients

Abstract

Locked posterior dislocation shoulder is uncommon and frequently missed injury. It account for 2% - 4% of all shoulder dislocations. It is commonly associated with osseous defects in humeral head articular surface known as reverse Hill-Sachs lesion. Numerous surgical procedures invented to repair this defect with variable outcomes but evidence based management strategies are lacking. Among these procedures are: transfer of lesser tuberosity or subscapularis tendon, rotational osteotomy of humerus, osteochondral grafts. Salvage procedure as hemiarthroplasty or total shoulder arthroplasty used in huge non-constructable defect or very old neglected dislocation. In our case series, we treated 9 cases (2 females) of locked posterior shoulder dislocation with antero-medial humeral head defects ranging between 30% - 50% of head size. Open reduction of dislocation followed by transfer of the lesser tuberosity together with subscapularis tendon for reconstruction of the humeral head defect. The transfer was fixed with Ethibond suture size 5-0 (Ethicon, Inc. Somerville, New Jersy). The mean follow-up period was 14.5 months (range, 12 - 25 months). Seven cases had no pain or restriction of activities of daily living. No patient had symptoms of instability of the shoulder. According to UCLA Shoulder rating scale, there were 3 cases rated excellent, 4 cases rated good, one case rated fair and one case rated poor. It is concluded that reconstruction of the humeral head defect provides good pain relief, stability and function for patients with a locked posterior dislocation where the defect involves between 30% - 50% of the articular surface circumference. Our technique is simple, cheap and there is no need for second operation for hardware removal.