Abstract
Objectives:
To examine the location of surgically repaired labral tears by a single surgeon over a consecutive 23-year period.
Methods:
A total of 1763 consecutive patients who underwent arthroscopic or open shoulder labral repair by a single sports medicine fellowship trained orthopedic surgeon were retrospectively reviewed between April 2000 and April 2023. Current procedural terminology codes were utilized to identify patients which included 29806, 29807, 29822, and 29823. Exclusion criteria included isolated shoulder manipulation or glenohumeral joint or labral debridement which did not include repair. Intraoperative glenoid labral tears observed were categorized into 6 broad categories which included (1) anterior labral tears, (2) posterior labral tears, (3) superior labral anterior to posterior (SLAP) type 2 tears (a, b, or c), (2) SLAP type 5 tears, (3) SLAP type 8 tears, or circumferential tears (combined SLAP, anterior and posterior labral tear). Shoulders diagnosed with multiple tear patterns (ie anterior and posterior) were also noted.
Results:
During the 23-year period, 1763 patients underwent arthroscopic or open labral repair which included 1295 male patients and 468 female patients, ranging from ages 12 to 70, with a mean age of 23.2 and median age of 19. Overall, 28.4% of tears involved the anterior labrum, 64.9% involved the posterior labrum, and 59.7% involved the superior labrum. Regarding isolated tears, 9.25% were isolated anterior labral tears, 19.7% were isolated posterior labral tears, 11.4% involved the anterior and posterior labrum, 22.2% were isolated SLAP type 2 tears, 3.63% were isolated SLAP type 5 tears, and 29.7% were isolated SLAP type 8 tears, and 4.01% were circumferential tears.
Conclusions:
In contrast to historic ideology, posterior shoulder labral tearing was more common than anterior in a large consecutive series of 1763 patients who underwent surgical repair. This highlights the importance of posterior labral pathology which sometimes may be overlooked due to more vague complaints, including pain and loss of function, being most common.