Impact of tuberosity treatment in reverse shoulder arthroplasty after proximal humeral fractures: A multicentre study.

BACKGROUND: To assess how tuberosity treatment affects the short-term clinical outcome of patients with complex proximal humeral fractures (PHFs) treated with reverse shoulder arthroplasty (RSA). METHODS: This is a multicentre study on 90 patients affected by acute PHFs (Neer type-4/11C3.2 in 80% of patients, and a Neer type 3/11B3.2 in 20%) treated with RSA and followed at an average of 34 months. Patients were divided into two groups (reconstructed and non-reconstructed tuberosity) according to the surgical fixation of the tuberosities. Then, the "reconstructed tuberosity" was divided into "healed" and "non-healed" groups. All patients were clinically evaluated in terms of ROM and strength in elevation, as well as with 0-10 numerical rating scale (NRS), Constant and Murley Score (CMS), DASH Score, and EQ-VAS. X-rays in anteroposterior and Neer views were performed. RESULTS: Based on the status of the tuberosities, 18.9% were non-reconstructed (17 patients) and 81.1% were reconstructed (73 patients): out of these, 11 were correctly healed, 42 healed with malposition, and 20 were reabsorbed. Instability was found in 2/73 patients in the reconstructed group, and in 4/17 patients in the non-reconstructed group. NRS (1.4 vs 0.5), DASH (23.1 vs 13.9), and EQ-VAS (78.1 vs 83.7) scores had better final values in the non-reconstructed group (p < 0.05). However, the non-correctly healed tuberosity group (excision + resorption + malposition/migration) showed worse strength, as well as clinical scores when compared to the correctly healed tuberosity group. CONCLUSION: RSA ensures satisfactory functional results for PHFs. Patients with a successfully reconstructed tuberosity have an overall better outcome. However, in this series most of the reconstructed cases presented tuberosity reabsorption, malposition, or migration, which led to lower results. Thus, tuberosity reconstruction must be carefully considered and tuberosity reabsorption or migration factors should be investigated, to optimize tuberosity reconstruction and provide to a higher number of patients a better outcome of RSA for the treatment of PHFs.

Use of a Dry Surgical Simulator Improves Orthopaedic Residents' Competency and Technical Skills for Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repair.

Purpose: To evaluate whether an anatomic dry shoulder Dexter training model surgical simulator would be effective in augmenting orthopaedic residents' skills for arthroscopic rotator cuff repair. Methods: Nine residents, enrolled for this prospective study, watched a video presentation about transosseus equivalent (TOE) double-row, rotator cuff repair technique, repeating the aforementioned technique twice on the simulator. The time to complete all steps to final repair, as well as the quality of the final repair, were measured. Results: The data for repair completion time showed a statistically significant difference in the total duration time of performing the procedure, when comparing the timing in tests 1 and 2, demonstrating a reduced operative time. The qualitative data collected show an increase in the final score in 100% (9 out of 9) of the participants between the first and second tests, with an improvement in the average score of 16.4% (3.22 points with a standard deviation of 2.64). Hence, there is a statistically significant difference (P = .006) between the total scores obtained by the participants at the end of tests 1 and 2, presenting an improvement of the quality score, shifting from the first (average score 19.7) to the second (average score 22.9) test. Conclusion: The dry simulator may be a valuable device to improve arthroscopic technical skills. This improvement was observed both in the resulting reduced operative time required to carry out the surgical procedure and the increased quality score (established to evaluate the quality of the required tasks). Clinical Relevance: In order to provide as many training opportunities as possible, an arthroscopy simulator could be used to supplement clinical arthroscopy skills training for orthopaedic residents.