Ken was invited as faculty to the Depuy Delta Extend Conference in Melbourne. He presented two talks. "Wedge Allografts in the Retroverted Glenoid" and "The Deltoid Reflective Approach"In the talk discussing wedge allografts in the retroverted glenoid Ken presented his results for osteoarthritic patients with severe B2 type glenoids in whom he corrected the glenoid retroversion with a bone graft taken from the excised humeral head combined with a reverse total shoulder replacement prosthesis.Results for Assoc Prof Cutbush for this procedure are:
The second talk that Dr Cutbush presented discussed a group of patients in whom he had reflected the anterior deltoid during reverse total shoulder replacement in order to protect it from injury. In jury of the anterior deltoid during shoulder replacement surgery results in an inabliity to lift the arm up at the front and often difficulty in reaching your mouth with that hand. While the shoulder may no longer ache it doesn't work properly. Reflecting the anterior deltoid at the time of surgery avoids this complication and improves the surgical exposure thereby improving the results of the joint replacement surgery. The technique is not a new technique and was first described by Henry in 1922 in his landmark textbbook of surgical exposures. Dr Curtbush reflects the deltoid in any shoulder replacement surgery where he finds that he is at risk of tearing the anterior deltoid muscle during the surgical procedure. He compared two groups of patients. The first group of 18 patients had their deltoid relfected during the reverse shoulder surgery. There was no difference between the two groups when they were assessed with the Oxford Shoulder Score from pre to post operatively. Ultrasound examination of the anterior deltoid that had been reflected from the clavicle and then reattached of all patients at one year showed complete healing of the reattached deltoid muscle. The scientific study showed that deltoid reflection avoided the severe complication of injury to the anterior deltoid and was safe to perform when a replacing a patients arthritic shoulder with a reverse total shoulder replacement.
