Osseous Healing With Non-Rigid Suture Fixation Offers a Compelling Alternative to Conventional Latarjet Procedure
Authors: Kalia Vivek , Pacheco Emily G. , Freehill Michael T. 
Published: July 2019

Objectives:

The Latarjet procedure, both open and arthroscopically, is a popular means to surgically address anterior glenohumeral (GH) joint instability. Though the arthroscopic approach to the Latarjet is becoming increasingly common, challenges persist: (1) technical difficulty positioning the bone block flush with the glenoid and the screws parallel to the glenoid surface (2) postoperative complications secondary to the two bicortical fixation screws, and (3) considerable risk of neurological injury. Recently, a novel surgical technique has been described which uses a guided surgical approach for graft positioning with non-rigid fixation via a suture suspensory system. The objective of our retrospective study was to evaluate healing rates and long-term stability of shoulders who underwent this new technique of anterior glenoid augmentation. The specific aims of our study were to assess (1) if this non-rigid suture fixation system is stable enough to allow the autograft bone to heal onto the native glenoid appropriately and (2) if the autograft bone could be reliably placed without migration of the graft.

Methods:

In this retrospective study, we gathered anonymized DICOM computed tomography (CT) datasets from a total of 107 patients who underwent non-rigid suture fixation with a cortical button fixation device in lieu of the traditional bicortical screws during arthroscopic Latarjet procedure. Of the 107 patients, only 75 patients had at least two CT scans performed at two different time periods which could be compared in terms of osseous healing and potential migration. The first CT scan for each patient was 2 weeks postoperative. Each patient’s CT scans were compared side-by-side by the same fellowship-trained musculoskeletal radiologist on a diagnostic workstation. Data recorded included the age, gender, date of each scan, initial graft position on the glenoid, presence and degree of graft migration on delayed follow-up scan (minimum 3 months), and the percentage of osseous healing (as assessed by osseous bridging) on the delayed follow-up scan. A minority of patients had several delayed timepoint scans (several years out), and those were evaluated as well. Descriptive statistics were calculated evaluating the average migration and average percent healing at both timepoints.

Results:

Our population (n=75) consisted of 61 men (81.3%) and 14 women (18.7%). The mean age of was 27.3 ± 1.1 years. The mean time period between initial CT scan (2 weeks postoperative) and follow-up CT scan to assess for healing and migration was 27 ± 2 weeks. At delayed follow-up scan, the average percent healing on follow-up scan was 78% ± 4%. A total of 61 out of 75 (81%) patients had greater than 75% healing on follow-up scan. The average migration of the coracoid graft in our study was 1.45 ± 0.23 mm, ranging from 0 mm to 8.75 mm. A total of 37/75 (49.3%) of the patients had no migration at all on follow-up scan, and 63/75 (84%) had migration of < 2 mm.

Conclusion:

Based on these findings, non-rigid suture fixation with a cortical button device offers a safe alternative to traditional screw fixation for the Latarjet procedure. Though a non-rigid fixation system, osseous healing with minimal migration of the graft can be predicted. [Figure: see text]