SAN DIEGO — Addressing anterior shoulder instability at an earlier age may prevent shoulder osteoarthritis. However, other factors, such as increased BMI, smoking, and manual labor, may increase a patient's risk of osteoarthritis.
Two studies presented at the 2021 meeting of the American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons suggest that patients who develop anterior shoulder instability at an older age are at a higher risk of developing shoulder arthritis.
In one of the largest studies of a US population with anterior shoulder instability, researchers from the Mayo Clinic identified 154 patients from a regional database.
"While some work has been done on the long-term risk for osteoarthritis after glenohumeral joint instability, most of this work has been done in Europe," said Christopher Camp, MD, one of the Mayo Clinic study authors. "The long-term outcomes in a US population were not as well understood."
With an average of 15.2 years of follow-up, 22.7% of the patients in the Mayo Clinic cohort developed clinically symptomatic shoulder arthritis without shoulder stabilization surgery.
Dr Christopher Camp
Univariate analysis revealed that patients with symptomatic osteoarthritis were more likely to be a current or former smoker (relative risk [RR], 2.46; 95% CI, 1.37 - 4.42; P= .003), to have an occupation as a manual laborer (RR, 2.14; 95% CI, 1.14 - 4.01;
