Arthroscopic Latarjet for the treatment of anterior shoulder instability: is the change justified?

Pedro Manuel de Sousa Barros Pereira, 2017

Purpose: Evidence regarding the multiple aspects of arthroscopic Latarjet is now starting to appear. The purpose of this review is to evaluate multiple outcomes related to the arthroscopic Latarjet and to compare them with the open approach. We hope to understand if the arthroscopic should start to be regarded as the gold standard and if there are specific indications for its use. 

Methods: A systematic review of articles present in PubMed was performed. Studies of post-operative outcomes following Arthroscopic Latarjet procedures were selected as well as comparative studies between Open and Arthroscopic Latarjet.. The functional outcome, coracoid position, operative time, learning curve and post-operative pain were analysed. 

Results: We were able to access the learning curve as 10 to 20 procedures and to discover that is possible to perform this surgery in around 100 minutes. There were no noteworthy differences in terms of functional outcomes and complications and there were good results in terms of the coracoid positioning. The Arthroscopic Latarjet had better results in terms of early post-operative pain and there was a positive trend in contact athletes that may support its use in this population. 

Conclusions: The full potential of this procedure is yet to be understood, after the surgeon has overcome the learning curve, both in terms of complications and operatory time. As the results were mostly comparable and the arthroscopic procedure is a highly differentiated one, we believe that the open Latarjet should maintain its gold standard status because of its high success rate and overall excellent results. 

Level of Evidence: III; Keywords: Open Latarjet; Arthroscopic Latarjet; Functional Outcome; Post-operative pain; Sports Medicine 



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