Purpose: Non-traumatic osteonecrosis of the humeral head is an uncommon condition. Arthroplasty remains the treatment of choice when the head has lost its spherical shape. The purpose of this work was to assess clinical and radiological results in a monocentric consecutive series of 19 shoulders.
Material and methods: Twelve men and five women, mean age 56 years were treated for humeral head osteonecrosis with a shoulder prosthesis. Seven patients had quadripolar necrosis: two had four prostheses (2 shoulder + 2 hip), three had three prostheses (1 shoulder + 2 hip), and two had two prostheses (1 shoulder + 1 hip). Osteonecrosis was idiopathic in six cases, related to corticosteroid treatment in ten, radiotherapy in two, and Gaucher disease in one. The Arlet and Ficat classification showed stage II=3, stage IV=13 and stage V=3. There were rotator cuff tears in two patients. Fourteen simple humeral prostheses and five total shoulder prostheses were implanted.
Results: At mean seven years follow-up (2–12), the Neer classification showed excellent outcome in seven shoulders, satisfactory outcome in nine, and unsatisfactory outcome in three. Eighty-nine percent of the patients were satisfied. The Constant pain score improved from 1.5 points to 11.5 points, the activity score from 7.2 to 14.6, and motion from 15 to 27. Active anterior flexion was 120°, external rotation 34°, internal rotation at L3. The rough Constant score was 58 and the weighted score 78%. There were no lucent lines around the humeral implants, but a complete line was present around two glenoid implants which were radiographically loosened. These two shoulders presented glenoiditis with glenoid wear. No surgical revisions have been performed to date.
Discussion: Shoulder prosthesis has given satisfactory results for osteonecrosis of the humeral head with resolution of pain in 80% of patients. Shoulder motion remains limited in relation with the often significant preoperative stiffness. Results have been better in patients with less advanced disease preoperatively and preserved motion. In our series, poor results were found in patients whose osteonecrosis was radiation-related.
