Surgical repair of anterior shoulder instability by conventional versus arthroscopic approach: an integrative literature review

Abstract

Objective: To compare the postoperative clinical outcomes of patients undergoing surgical treatment for correction of anterior shoulder instability by conventional versus arthroscopic approach. Methods: Integrative literature review of scientific articles collected in the MEDLINE database, integrated in the PubMed platform, published in the period from 2016 to 2021. Results: There are countless ways to perform surgical repair of anterior shoulder instabilities. The two main techniques are Bankart and Latarjet repair, which can be performed arthroscopically or conventionally. Currently, the indication of the technique involves clinical and radiological criteria of the affected shoulder. The studies that analyzed both surgical routes comparatively in the same cohort showed a tenuous superiority of the repairs by conventional route in relation to those performed by arthroscopic route. Final considerations: Despite the studies showing a subtle superiority of repairs using the conventional route, it is noted that arthroscopic repairs have comparable outcomes, thus representing a less invasive procedure with good efficacy for correcting anterior shoulder instabilities.