IntroductionWhat is the rate of injecting patients with shoulder corticosteroid injections to alleviate excessive stiffness and pain within 6 months after shoulder surgery?MethodsRetrospective 10-year review of a shoulder surgeon’s practice. Participants included 754 patients who had 945 non-arthroplasty shoulder surgeries. Outcome measures included the rate of injections, diagnoses, patient characteristics, and efficacy via questionnaire.ResultsApproximately one in five patients received a subacromial and/or glenohumeral corticosteroid injection. Over 95% of patients stated that the injections helped reduce shoulder pain and increased function 6 weeks post-injection. Twenty-two percent of cases (208/945) received glenohumeral and/or subacromial injections. The 208 injected cases had these diagnoses: rotator cuff tear (28% of injected patients), subacromial impingement (20%), glenohumeral instability (16%), subacromial impingement with acromioclavicular osteoarthritis (10%), adhesive capsulitis (7%), SLAP lesion (5%), biceps tendinopathy (3%), glenohumeral instability with subacromial impingement (3%), proximal humerus fracture (2%), calcific tendinitis (2%), and less common conditions (4%). Diagnoses among those with the highest rates of injected patients per diagnosis included: SLAP lesions (40%), calcific tendinitis (40%), adhesive capsulitis (29%), subacromial impingement (28%), proximal humerus fracture (24%), rotator cuff tear (19%), and glenohumeral instability (16%). Significant differences (p < 0.03) were found between patients who did and did not receive injections with respect to age (more likely younger patients with cuff tear) and sex (more likely female with subacromial impingement and instability) but not for diabetes or arthroscopic vs. open procedures.ConclusionThis is the first study to establish the rates of postoperative shoulder corticosteroid injections within the first 6 months after various non-arthroplasty shoulder surgeries for patients with high pain/stiffness. These data will be useful for establishing guidelines for using corticosteroid injections along with physiotherapy.

We report the case of a 70-year-old male with Parkinson's disease (PD) and recurrent traumatic left shoulder dislocations. This case is rare because (1) he had a massive irreparable rotator cuff tear and end-stage arthritis (i.e., rotator cuff-tear arthropathy) of the same shoulder and (2) his shoulder was ultimately reconstructed with a reverse total shoulder arthroplasty (RTSA). His first dislocation occurred after a fall. Recurrent shoulder dislocations occurred despite successful closed reduction and physical therapy. Initial surgical treatment included an open capsular-labral reconstruction; RTSA was not an ideal option because of the presumed risk of failure from PD-related dyskinesias. However, the capsular-labral reconstruction failed after he lost balance and stumbled but did not fall. A RTSA was then done which restored the patient's shoulder stability and greatly improved his pain. At final follow-up two years later, he reported pain relief and improved function. This was partially attributed to the fact that he had moved to an assisted living center. He also began using an electric wheelchair one year after the RTSA. We report this case because of the unusual set of conditions and circumstances, namely, the implantation of a RTSA in a patient with PD and shoulder instability.

This report describes a 63-year-old generally healthy male with septic olecranon bursitis caused by Propionibacterium acnes. The patient sustained a small laceration after striking the posterior aspect of his left elbow on a metal railing when he was at a public swimming pool. We concluded that P. acnes was not initially detected because cultures were only kept for 5 days. Consequently, initial antibiotic treatment failed. P. acnes and Staphylococcus epidermidis grew in a subsequent tissue culture. The infection did not respond to intravenous vancomycin although soft-tissue debridements were done. This likely reflected the presence of olecranon osteomyelitis (seen on MRI scans) in addition to inadequate treatment with this antibiotic in the setting of a polymicrobial infection. Eventually, the infection was eradicated with multiple soft-tissue debridements in addition to the continuation of vancomycin with daily intravenous piperacillin/tazobactam that was added for the final 4 weeks of antibiotic treatment.

Manual wheelchair users place high stress on their shoulders. We describe a 69-year-old male who developed end-stage shoulder osteoarthritis from chronic manual wheelchair (MW) use. Three prosthetic total shoulder replacements failed, reflecting his refusal to transition to an electric wheelchair. MW use must be avoided in some of these patients.