Aequalis Humeral Head Resurfacing in Glenohumeral Arthritis at a Minimum Followup of 2 Years

Aim. To evaluate results of Aequalis humeral head resurfacing in patients with end-stage glenohumeral arthritis at a minimum followup of two years. Patients and Methods. Twenty-one consecutive patients underwent humeral head resurfacing hemiarthroplasty between 2007 and 2009. Three patients did not fulfill the inclusion criteria. 18 patients with mean age of 75.1 years (range 58–91 years) and a mean duration of preoperative symptoms of 33.6 months (range 6–120 months) were analyzed. Patients' self-reported Oxford shoulder score (OSS) was collected prospectively and was used as an assessment tool to measure final outcome. Results. The mean initial OSS was 15 (range 3–29). The score improved by an average of 19.5 points at a mean followup of 36.3 months (range 24–54 months) to reach a mean final OSS of 34.5 (range 6–47). The improvement of OSS was highly significant with a two-tailed P value less than 0.0001. The overall patient satisfaction was 94%. Conclusion. This study demonstrates Aequalis shoulder resurfacing hemiarthroplasty as a reliable procedure, away from its originating center, for improvement of shoulder function as shown by the patients' self-reported outcome score (OSS) in end-stage glenohumeral arthritis at a minimum followup of 2 years.