Poster 175: ALPSA Lesions Associated with High Rate of Early Repair Failure

OBJECTIVES: Anterior labroligamentous periosteal sleeve avulsion (ALPSA) lesions occur in patients with recurrent shoulder instability and are associated with higher rates of failure after capsulolabral repair surgery compared to typical Bankart lesions. Despite recognition that these lesions can portend poor outcomes, there is relatively limited data to understand the associated injuries and postoperative course in a young, active population. The purpose of this study is to evaluate ALPSA lesions for associated pathology and outcomes. METHODS: Methods: We reviewed the records of 312 patients who underwent arthroscopic shoulder stabilization by one of two fellowship trained sports surgeons at a single facility between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2015. Inclusion criteria were a minimum follow-up of five years after index surgical repair and presence of an ALPSA lesion as identified on arthroscopic exam, leaving 46 patients available for review. Our primary outcome measures were failure and operative revision surgery. We considered failure as any recurrent shoulder instability events including subjective subluxation and dislocation, recurrence of pain consistent with instability, or functionally limiting apprehension. We performed survival analysis and a multivariate logistic regression analysis to identify factors associated with failure. RESULTS: Results: In total, 46 patients with average age 21.2 years met inclusion and underwent surgery a median of 7.1 months after initial recalled injury event. 11/46 had concomitant posterior pathology in addition to anterior labral lesion. Six patients were found to have SLAP lesions. All patients experienced subjective instability, and 44/46 endorsed pain prior to surgery. 38/46 reported having experienced complete dislocation. The median number of dislocations before surgery was 3. Repairs were performed with average 3.7 anchors. Eight patients failed surgery at median 15.1 months post-index procedure, with 75% of failures occurring before two years with the remaining 25% occurring later in follow-up. Three of these failed revision repair. CONCLUSIONS: Conclusions: ALPSA lesions frequently occur in the presence of other intra-articular shoulder lesions and portend a high rate of recurrent shoulder instability despite repair. Notably, while failure occurs at a high rate, most repair failure for these lesions tends to occur early.