scielo.br/aob. Work performed at Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Tongji Hospital, Tongji University Ponatinib price School of Medicine, 389 Xincun Road, Shanghai 200065, China.
Nowadays, arthroscopy is the method used most often to treat recurrent anterior dislocation of the shoulder. However, in glenoid bone lesions above 25%, the Bankart procedure with arthroscopic approach presents a high rate of recurrence. 1 The treatment of choice in these situations is the Bristow or Latarjet surgical procedure, performed using the open technique, which consists of the transfer of the coracoid process to the anterior edge of the glenoid. 2 , 3 Success in the performance of the Latarjet surgery depends on several factors, 4 such as the positioning of the coracoid graft below the glenoid equator and its parallelism with the articular surface.

The Latarjet procedure using the arthroscopic approach is a new treatment method for recurrent anterior dislocation of the shoulder. This technique, originally described by Lafosse et al., 5 makes it possible to associate the advantages of arthroscopy with those of the Latarjet procedure. However, this method presents a high degree of technical difficulty, and was described by just a few authors. 5 – 7 Nourissat et al. 8 report good results in an anatomical study, in which they performed the procedure through mini-incisions assisted by arthroscopy. There are no studies evaluating the potential complications and anatomical parameters of the procedure carried out entirely via the arthroscopic approach in cadavers.

The primary goal of this study was to determine the safety of the arthroscopic Latarjet procedure in cadavers, evaluating the correct positioning of the coracoid process, the integrity of the anatomical structures and complications. The secondary goal was to evaluate the reproducibility of the procedure, comparing the results between four shoulder surgeons. MATERIAL AND METHODS Twelve arthroscopic Latarjet procedures were performed in the arthroscopy laboratory of our institution, using cadavers. Four orthopedic shoulder surgeons carried out the procedures. They all had experience in performing arthroscopies and in the open Latarjet surgery, averaging 11.75 year of practice (ranging from 5 to 20 years). However, none of them had previous experience with the performance of the arthroscopic Latarjet procedure.

Each surgeon operated on three specimens. None of the pieces presented deformities or fractures of the coracoid process. The operations were performed using standard arthroscopic material and a special guide to fix the coracoid process, developed in our institution. (Figure 1) Figure 1 Guide used for transfer and fixation of the coracoid graft on The specimens used presented GSK-3 all the muscles around the shoulder girdle, the whole scapula, the clavicle, the acromioclavicular and glenohumeral joints and the humeral diaphysis. They were placed in “beach chair” position, using a support device.