Humeral internal rotation osteotomy for the treatment of Erb-Duchenne-type obstetric palsy: clinical and radiographic results

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the functional and radiographic results in patients undergoing shoulder anterior soft tissue stretching in association with open reduction and internal rotation osteotomy to centralize the humeral head as a treatment for Erb-Duchenne obstetric palsy sequelae. METHOD: A total of 35 patients underwent this surgical treatment, and the mean follow-up was 4.6 years. The Mallet scale was applied before and after the surgical procedure. A total of 20 patients underwent computed tomography to assess the glenoid version and humeral head subluxation. RESULTS: Functional improvement was achieved, as evidenced by an increase in the Mallet scale score from 12.14 to 16.46 (p<0.001). The correction of retroversion was achieved once the glenoid version ranged from -21.4 to -12 degrees (p<0.001). The humeral head subluxation improved from 6.5 to 35.2% (p<0.001). Patients older than 6 years of age did not achieve glenohumeral joint improvement with respect to dysplastic abnormalities. CONCLUSION: Internal rotation osteotomy in association with the stretching of anterior soft tissues of the shoulder in patients under the age of 7 years provided improvements in the function, retroversion, and subluxation of the glenohumeral joint. .

Surgical treatment of shoulder joint posterior dislocation secondary to internal rotation contractnre deformity in brachial plexus birth palsy / 中华显微外科杂志

ObjectiveTo observe the functional recovery of shoulder joint and the reduction of posterior dislocated humeral head in children with shoulder joint internal rotation contracture and humeral head posterior dislocation secondary to brachial plexus birth palsy treated by a modified surgical procedure through the anterior combined posterior approach of the shoulder. MethodsNinteen patients,ranging in age from 2.5 to 8.5 years (average 5 years),suffered posterior dislocation of the shoulder joint secondary to internal rotation contracture in brachial plexus birth palsy. The gleno-humeral joint deformity was confirmed by X-ray and CT examination and classified as type Ⅳ in 15 eases and typeⅤin 4 cases according to the modified water's criteria.The surgical procedure was as follows:the contracture soft tissue around the anterior of shoulder joint was released firstly through the anterior approach, and the posterior-inferior capsule of the shoulder was exposed and separated with the pseudoglenoid through the posterior approach,the humeral head was reduced by external rotation the arm,then the posterior-inferior capsule was retighten.A plaster cast was used to fix the shoulder at the neutral position of 0° for 4 weeks. ResultsAfter 12 to 36 months follow up(average of 20 months), the Mallet score of the shoulder was from 11.4 ± 1.7 (range 7-16)preoperative to 15.5 ± 1.8(range 13-19) postoperative,the difference was significantly (P ＜ 0.05).The central relocation of humeral head was achieved in 16 patients, but the humeral head was still dislocated to posterior in 3 cases.ConclusionsThe posterior-inferior capsule was separated with the pseudo-glenoid and retighten through the posterior approach,and reduction of the humeral head by soft tissue releaseing through the anterior approach can recover the concentric relationship of gleno-humeral joint and improve the function of shoulder joint with posterior dislocation secondary to internal rotated contracture deformity in brachial plexus birth palsy.