SURGICAL APPROACHES TO THE SHOULDER JOINT IN UNIPOLAR POST FRACTURE ENDOPROSTHESIS REPLACEMENT

Abstract

This notification is intended to present our experience in applying various anatomic landmarks and approaches to the shoulder joint in unipolar post fracture endoprosthesis replacement. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The period of monitoring includes the last 5 years. For this period, 35 shoulder joint aloplastics after a proximal shoulder fracture have been performed at the Orthopaedics and Traumatology Department at the Medical University - Varna, St. Anna General Active Treatment Hospital Base. The patients were in the group above 70 years of age; of them, 30 were women, and 5 were men. 32 hemiprostheses and 3 bipolar prostheses were implanted. RESULTS: During the unipolar endoprosthesis replacement, we have used various approaches to the shoulder joint. To process the results of the arthroplastics performed after the proximal humerus fracture, the Constant Shoulder Score method was used with a Questionnaire Card. This Questionnaire Card investigates the patient's condition on the fourth week after the intervention. The level of pain, activity and motions in the shoulder are examined. Each one of the indexes gives the respective estimation, as a result of which the patient's status is summarized. This status varies from "bad" to "excellent". The other method used for a statistical result processing was VAS (Visual analogue scale of pain). CONCLUSION: Using various approaches to shoulder joint in aloplastics depends on the reason which has led to this aloplastics, on the surgeon's experience and on knowing the anatomic details of the area affected.

Keywords

• humeral fractures
• shoulder replacement arthroplasty
• joints
• dislocation fracture
• shoulder prosthesis
• surgical approaches