At the BOA Annual Congress
Dr Kenneth Cutbush presented his paper on arthroscopic posterior bone block at the British Orthopaedic Association Annual Congress in Liverpool in September 2015.
What the BOA Annual Congress is
The British Orthopaedic Association is the national body for orthopaedic surgeons in the United Kingdom, and its annual congress is the main meeting at which its members present research, hear invited lectures and attend instructional sessions. Papers are submitted as abstracts and selected by review, so a presentation slot represents an assessment that the work is worth putting before the meeting. National congresses of this kind also draw surgeons from other countries, which is how a technique reported in one place reaches surgeons practising elsewhere.
Posterior shoulder instability
Most shoulders that become unstable move forwards out of the socket. A smaller group become unstable in the opposite direction, backwards, either after an injury, through repeated loading in activities such as bench pressing or blocking in contact sport, or because of the shape and orientation of the socket itself. The symptoms are often slipping, clunking and pain with the arm held forwards and across the body, rather than a frank dislocation needing to be put back, which is one reason the diagnosis is sometimes made late. Treatment starts with physiotherapy directed at the rotator cuff and the muscles controlling the shoulder blade. Where surgery is required it may involve repairing the capsule and labrum at the back of the joint, and where the back rim of the socket has lost bone, adding a block of bone to rebuild it. Individual results vary.
The paper
The paper, "Arthroscopic posterior bone block: is it a viable technique?", reviewed a series of nine patients with recurrent posterior instability.
The conclusion drawn was that the procedure is a viable treatment for recurrent posterior instability, and that a capsulolabral reconstruction should be performed at the same time. Nine patients is a small series, so this reports early experience rather than established practice. Individual results vary.