How is a dislocated shoulder treated?

  The anatomy of the human shoulder joint is characterized by a large head (humeral head) and a small fossa (shoulder glenoid fossa). The advantage of this structure is that it is flexible and we can achieve an almost spherical range of motion in our hands. However, the perfect flexibility means a lack of stability. This is why the shoulder joint can be easily dislocated, especially anteriorly and inferiorly. This is because the ligaments in this direction are the weakest. Most patients are just sling protected for a few days after the shoulder joint is repositioned, and without proper braking after the shoulder dislocation, the torn tissue heals in a more lax position. Or if the tear is so severe that it injures the labrum of the glenoid (a ring of cartilage that deepens the articular fossa) or even tears the bones of the glenoid during dislocation, it makes the traumatic dislocation a habit of having a weak structural base, and whenever the shoulder joint rotates to the position where it was dislocated in the first place, structures such as the lax glenoid labrum and capsular ligaments cannot restrain the humeral head, and the humeral head easily goes up the dislocation pathway. This becomes a recurrent dislocation.  The humeral head is like a ping pong ball and the shoulder glenoid is like the handle of the ping pong ball. The humeral head slips easily and there is no way to talk about stability.  Many patients have had many dislocations, at which point the dislocated humeral head wears a deep groove behind it, or the edges of the glenoid are worn bald, making dislocation even easier. Many of our patients have even learned to reset themselves.  For such repeated dislocations, conservative treatment is no longer useful because the anatomical damage that caused the dislocation is not repaired and another dislocation is bound to occur.  There are two types of surgical treatment, one is minimally invasive arthroscopic treatment and the other is open surgery with small incisions.  Arthroscopic surgery allows the torn glenoid labrum cartilage to be re-sutured to the bones of the glenoid using anchor staples, repairing one of the causes of the dislocation. Some surgeons also simultaneously suture the posterior capsular ligament of the shoulder joint to the posterior aspect of the humeral head, preventing dislocation by reducing the external rotation of the humeral head and keeping it from rotating to where it can be dislocated. But the external rotation of the shoulder joint is reduced. Also, arthroscopic surgery cannot be done to repair bone defects with bone block grafting, so it is only suitable for fresh dislocations that are not severe and have a low number of dislocations. The recurrence rate is higher because the cause of dislocation is released less often.  In most cases, the glenoid labrum cartilage of a recurrently dislocated shoulder has completely broken down and disappeared after several tears from the dislocation, at which point it is impossible to reset and fix the glenoid labrum. Sometimes the tear also extends to the joint capsule and its ligaments. At this point it is no longer possible to prevent dislocation by repair of the glenoid labrum.  This is also the time when the shoulder joint can be incised through a small 4 cm incision, and the residual glenoid labrum tissue can be gathered up as much as possible through anchor staples and sutured to the bony edge of the glenoid along with some of the muscle to fix it. If there is a defect in the bone, the humeral head dislocation can also be blocked by fixing the bone block with screws. Finally, the muscle and tendon portions outside the shoulder capsule are tightly sutured. In this way, from the inside out, most of the pathological basis of recurrent shoulder dislocation is corrected, and the chance of further dislocation is much smaller.