Introduction:Early reports of outpatient shoulder arthroplasty are promising, although a paucity of outcome data exists, particularly for the outpatient shoulder arthroplasty performed at a freestanding ambulatory surgery center (ASC).Methods:A retrospective analysis of 61 shoulder arthroplasty procedures (21 consecutive outpatients and 40 inpatients) was performed. Outpatient shoulder arthroplasties were conducted at a freestanding ASC using a multimodal pain regimen without the use of regional anesthesia. The primary outcome was 90-day postoperative complication rate. Secondary outcomes included 90-day hospital admissions or readmissions, emergency department and urgent care visits, revision surgeries, mortality, postoperative pain, and functional scores.Results:No major complications, readmissions, revision surgeries, or deaths occurred in the outpatient cohort. The rate of 90-day complications was 9.5% and 17.5% for the outpatient and inpatient cohorts, respectively. All patients who had their shoulder arthroplasty as an outpatient were discharged home the day of surgery. No complications related to the outpatient protocol were observed. However, 4.8% of those who had outpatient surgery visited an emergency department or urgent care within 90 days compared with 5.0% of those who had surgery as an inpatient.Discussion:Outpatient shoulder arthroplasty can be performed safely and predictably in select patients at an ASC using a multimodal pain regimen without regional nerve block.

Background Many studies have attempted to correlate radiographic acromial characteristics with rotator cuff tears, but the results have not been conclusive. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between rotator cuff disease and development of symptoms with different radiographic acromial characteristics including shape, index, and presence of a spur. Materials and Methods The records of 216 patients enrolled in an ongoing prospective, longitudinal study investigating asymptomatic rotator cuff tears were reviewed. All patients underwent standardized radiographic evaluation, clinical evaluation, and shoulder ultrasonography at regularly scheduled surveillance visits. Three blinded observers reviewed all radiographs to determine the acromial morphology, presence and size of an acromial spur, and acromial index. These findings were analyzed to determine an association with the presence of a full-thickness rotator cuff tear. Results The three observers demonstrated poor agreement for acromial morphology, substantial agreement for the presence of an acromial spur, and excellent agreement for acromial index (kappa= 0.41, 0.65, and 0.86 respectively). The presence of an acromial spur was highly associated with the presence of a full-thickness rotator cuff tear (p=0.003) even after adjusting for age. No association was found between acromial index and rotator cuff disease (p=0.92). Conclusion The presence of an acromial spur is highly associated with the presence of a full-thickness rotator cuff tear in both the symptomatic and asymptomatic patient. The acromial morphology classification system is an unreliable method to assess the acromion. The acromial index shows no association with the presence of rotator cuff disease.

The purpose of this study was to compare the clinical and radiological outcome of patients with intact, broken and removed syndesmosis screws after Weber B or C ankle fracture with an associated injury to the syndesmosis. We hypothesised that there would be no difference. Of a possible 142 patients who fulfilled our inclusion criteria, 52 returned for clinical and radiological assessment at least one year after surgery. Of these, 27 had intact syndesmosis screws, ten had broken screws, and 15 had undergone elective removal of the screw. The mean American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society ankle/hindfoot score was 83.07 (sd 13.59) in the intact screw group, 92.40 (sd 12.69) in the broken screw group, and 85.80 (sd 11.33) in the removed screw group (p = 0.0466). There was no difference in clinical outcome of patients with intact or removed syndesmotic screws. Paradoxically, patients with a broken syndesmosis screw had the best clinical outcome. Our data do not support the removal of intact or broken syndesmosis screws, and we caution against attributing post-operative ankle pain to breakage of the syndesmosis screw.

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