अमूर्त

Arthroscopic anterior shoulder stabilisation: Get them moving early.

Sriskandarasa Senthilkumaran

Introduction: There is clinical equipoise regarding postoperative rehabilitation following arthroscopic shoulder stabilisation. The aim of this study was to compare early mobilisation regime with standard protected regime.

Method: Twenty-eight patients who were undergoing arthroscopic anterior shoulder stabilisation for recurrent dislocation were recruited into this prospective randomised clinical trial. They were randomised to either Early Mobilisation (EM) or Sling Immobilisation (SI) group. The EM group was allowed to move the shoulder immediately within a limited range. The SI group was kept in a sling for 6 weeks. Primary outcome measure was failure rate at 2 years. Secondary measures were Oxford Shoulder Instability Score (OSIS) at 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year and 2 years.

Results: There were no failures in the EM group; however SI group had 2 failures. There were no differences in the Oxford scores at any time points. The study was terminated prematurely as early results showed no significant difference between the two groups in terms of failure rate and functional scores throughout the follow up period.

Conclusion: Sling immobilisation does not appear to offer any advantage and may, in fact, be detrimental. Our results provide scientific evidence for early mobilisation following arthroscopic stabilisation surgery.