Abstract
Shoulder replacement has increased exponentially over the past decades due to good results reported in literature and improvement of surgical technique and devices efficacy. Previous studies suggested the effectiveness of shoulder replacement in fractures, assessing objective parameters as range of motion and radiographic images and evaluating the of postoperative complications and subsequent revision; pain relief, physical function level and health related quality of life (QoL) improvement were often left out. A prospective study was conducted on 21 patients surgically treated with shoulder emiarthroplasty for proximal humeral fractures (18 women and 3 men, mean age at follow-up 70 years – range: 57–82). The purpose of the present study is to collect the patient-relevant outcomes in a homogeneous sample (for surgeon, surgery, implant, inclusion-exclusion criteria, neurological status) of patients who underwent shoulder replacement for proximal humeral fractures. Preoperatively patients were evaluated through x-rays (trauma series), Ct-scans were performed when necessary for surgical decision. Postoperatively, two independent examiners examined all patients clinically and radiographically. For patient-oriented standardized measure SF-36, DASH (Disability of Arm, Shoulder and Hand questionnaire), ASES (American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeon), OSQ (Oxford Shoulder Questionnaire) and SST (simple Shoulder test) were chosen. Outcomes of our series were statistically compared with literature data and widely analyzed. This kind of data are unavailable in literature and could represent the first step towards the definition of outcome for this kind of procedure.
Theses abstracts were prepared by Professor Roger Lemaire. Correspondence should be addressed to EFORT Central Office, Freihofstrasse 22, CH-8700 Küsnacht, Switzerland.
