Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the rate of Buford complex in a consecutive series of patients with arthroscopic Bankart repair and to evaluate the postoperative outcome compared to a group of patients without this anatomical variation.

Material and Method: The surgical findings of 138 consecutive shoulder arthroscopies for Bankart lesions were prospective evaluated between January 2005 and January 2007; the mean of age was 25 years old (range 14–52). The criteria used to establish the diagnosis of Buford Complex included: cordlike middle glenohumeral ligament inserted in the superior labrum and attached to the biceps tendon, and complete absence of anterosuperior labrum.

Postoperative outcomes were evaluated with Rowe score.

Results: Five out of 138 patients (3.6%) presented a Buford complex associated to a Bankart lesion. Four of these patients (80%) presented a type II SLAP lesion. The follow up was 28 months (range 19–40 months). In the group of patients with the Buford complex the Rowe score had a mean of 75 points (range:45–95), 2 patients (40%) presented re-dislocation whereas in the other group the Rowe score had a mean 88 points (range: 25–100) and 9 cases (6.5%) had re-dislocation (P< 0.05).

Conclusion: The rate of complex of Buford associated to Bankart lesion was of 3.6%. The presence of complex of Buford in our series was associated to worse functional postoperative outcomes.

Containment of bone defects is one of the main requisites for using the bone impaction grafting technique. When the proximal femur is absent, circumferential meshes in combination with impacted bone allografts and long stems could be an alternative method. However, the initial stability of this femoral stems has not been evaluated and we were not able to find any series in the literature that includes a group of patients treated with this method.

This study has two purposes: one is to analyze the initial resistance in vitro to axial and rotational forces of a fresh frozen bovine model with a complete loss of the proximal femur reconstructed with a circumferential metal mesh containing impacted bone allografts and a long polished cemented stem. The second is to present the short-term clinical and radiographic evaluation in a group of patients with massive bone loss of the proximal femur that were reconstructed with this method.

Four femurs with an 8 cm proximal bone defect were reconstructed with a circumferential metal mesh, impacted bone grafts and a cemented long stem (group 1). Results were compared with 4 cases presenting an intact proximal femur in which the same stem was implanted (group 2).

Thirteen patients with complete massive proximal femoral bone defects (average 12 cm long) were reconstructed with a circumferential metal mesh, impacted bone allografts and a long cemented stem (average 217 cm long).

Failure mode was characterized by subsidence under axial load in group one at 617 kg and by periprosthetic fracture in control group at 1335 kg. Under rotational load, group 1 femurs failed at the cement interface at an average of 79 kg and the intact femurs presented a fracture at an average of 260 kg.

At 25 months follow-up, 6 patients had to be reoperated. We observed 2 fractures of the metal mesh at 31 and 48 months in cases reconstructed with a Charnley stem that did not by pass the mesh. Three patients presented one dislocation that needed open reduction in 2 cases. Two acute deep infections were treated with debridement, antibiotics and component retention.

This model presented a 50% resistance to axial load and 30% resistance to rotational load compared to an intact femur with the same implant. However, this resistance is by far higher than the physiologic load occurring in a normal femur during gait.

Although the incidence of complications in this patients was high, this was related to the complexity of the cases. Failures of the system were not observed except in the 2 cases presenting technical defects.

This experimental initial stability and early clinical as well as radiographic results encourage the use of circumferential meshes to contain impacted bone allografts combined with long cemented stems in complex revision hip surgery.