The outcome of an anatomical shoulder replacement depends on an intact rotator cuff. In 1981 Grammont designed a novel large-head reverse shoulder replacement for patients with cuff deficiency. Such has been the success of this replacement that it has led to a rapid expansion of the indications. We performed a systematic review of the literature to evaluate the functional outcome of each indication for the reverse shoulder replacement. Secondary outcome measures of range of movement, pain scores and complication rates are also presented.The modern reverse shoulder replacement (RSR) can offer a surgical option for the management of arthritis of the shoulder that would be precluded by a conventional design.
1,2The success of the prosthesis has led to expansion of the indications from cuff tear arthropathy to any disease about the shoulder where cuff function is deficient.
3-5The prosthesis has also been a financial success, leading many companies to introduce their own version with small changes to the original design, such as the Aequalis Reversed Shoulder (Tornier, SaintIsmier, France) and the SMR Shoulder (Lima, Udine, Italy). As a result of the expansion of the indications for RSR, the procedure now accounts for over a large proportion of all shoulder replacements performed in mainland Europe.This article will look at the benefits and risks of RSR for each indication. The original indication for RSR was cuff tear arthropathy. The results obtained for new indications were compared with those for cuff tear arthropathy, with a primary outcome measure as a functional score. Secondary outcome measures were range of movement, rate of complications and pain scores. In order to allow for comparison between groups, the outcome scores, complication rates and pain scores have been converted to percentages.A systematic review of the English-language literature was undertaken; the keywords used were shoulder and reverse; arthroplasty; inverse or delta. Medline, were all searched. Inclusion criteria included studies presenting new data from more than one case and where functional outcome scores were reported. Exclusion criteria included studies that had a mixture of surgical techniques presented as a single group. Further exclusion criteria for the cuff tear arthropathy group were studies published more than five years ago; studies with less than 50 patients and those from more than one centre.We identified 22 papers, which were reviewed in full. The complications of RSR for any indication were discussed and specific issues for each pathology highlighted.All the abstracts were reviewed independently by two of the authors (CDS, PG) to identify studies for full review and the bibliographies of these articles were also reviewed for additional studies. Any disagreements with regards to inclusion and exclusion were resolved by discussion with the senior author (TDB).
Cuff tear arthropathyThe modern concept of cuff tear arthropathy is the combination of arthritis and a massive cuff tear where the shoulder joint may remain concent...