Evaluation of Arthroscopic Repair to Pan-Labral Lesions of the Glenoid: A Retrospective Review of Patient Outcomes Over a Ten-Year Period and Matched Cohort Analysis

Abstract

Introduction: Most shoulder labral tears are partial and treated with surgery, but rarely they are “panlabral” around the entire shoulder. Due to infrequency panlabral tears aren’t well understood, and thus this study compares outcomes between panlabral and more common SLAP tears. We hypothesize no difference in outcomes based on surgeon experiences. Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study of shoulder labrum repairs at Rothman Institute from 2006-2016. All patients received arthroscopic repair and were categorized to compare panlabral to SLAP tears. The primary outcome is return-to-activity rate at six months post-surgery and secondary outcomes include post-operative range of motion, strength, and identifying the incidence of this rare injury. Chart abstraction into Excel and patient phone calls/emails for return-to-activity rates will be analyzed via Independent T-tests and Chi-squared tests. Results: The panlabral tear incidence was 3.9%. Currently the primary outcome (return-to-activity rate) lacks enough panlabral patients for analysis with 140 patients (60 SLAP, 3 panlabral, 77 other) of 739 total (350 SLAP, 29 panlabral, 360 other) answering phone calls/emails. Secondary outcome analysis indicated no difference in range of motion, strength, or complications between SLAP and panlabral repairs. Discussion: Compared to existing reports of 2.4% incidence, using one of (if not) the largest cohorts we suggest the true incidence of panlabral tears is higher at 3.9%. Though primary outcome analysis is ongoing, secondary outcomes demonstrate that, as hypothesized, panlabral repairs perform as well as SLAP repairs. This may represent the highest level of evidence support yet for current treatment of this rare injury