A new study published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine has quantified the open procedure complication rates for Latarjet. The study was conducted in a high-volume center.
Latarjet 90-Day Open Procedure Complication Rate Data
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The researchers of “90-Day Complication Rate After the Latarjet Procedure in a High-Volume Center,” which was published online on October 30, 2020 in The American Journal of Sports Medicine, measured surgical complication rates for this procedure at their center.
The open Latarjet procedure is often indicated for patients with recurrent anterior shoulder instability, previous failed soft tissue stabilization, glenoid bone loss, or high-risk factors for recurrence. However, there has been concern over the complications that can develop.
To measure the complications, the researchers conducted a retrospective review of the procedure at their high-volume center.
They analyzed data on 441 patients who underwent an open Latarjet procedure at the one center between January 2015 and December 2019. The mean age was 23.0 ± 5.7 years, and the majority of the patients were male.
The primary endpoints were complications, readmissions, and reoperations within 90 days.
The researchers reported two intraoperative complications, one coracoid fracture and one anaphylactic reaction to vancomycin.
Overall, there were 19 postoperative complications (4.3%) in 18 patients. Four of the patients needed to be readmitted for revision surgery.
The most common complication was hematomas which occurred in 12 patients. Twelve of whom needed to return to surgery for an evacuation during their hospital stay.
Of those who needed to be readmitted to the hospital for reoperation, one was for a hematoma requiring a washout, two were for irrigation and debridement of a surgical site infection, and the fourth was for a biceps tenodesis.
None of the patients had recurrence or any postoperative or neurovascular complications.
The researchers wrote, “We found that in a high-volume center, the open Latarjet procedure has a low 90-day complication rate with a low revision rate. Hematomas were the most common complication experienced by patients who underwent the Latarjet procedure, while there was no recurrent instability or neurological or hardware complications reported among the 441 patients included in this study.”
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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