The Comparison of Results of Early and Late Rehabilitation Following Arthroscopic Bankart Repair with Knotless Anchor in Recurrent Traumatic Anterior Shoulder Dislocation

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to compare the clinical and functional results of early and late rehabilitation of patients who had undergone arthroscopic Bankart repair with knotless anchor for recurrent shoulder dislocation and to define the most appropriate rehabilitation time and the effect of this on recurrence. METHODS: 34 patients (32 male and 2 female) were included in this study. The patients were diagnosed with recurrent anterior shoulder dislocation with Bankart lesion in our institution. The exclusion criteria in this study were multi-directional shoulder instability, wide osseous Bankart lesion, wide Hill-Sachs lesion or rotator cuff tear. All patients underwent arthroscopic Bankart repair. Knotless anchor was used in all patients. The patients were grouped into 2 groups postoperatively according to the immobilization period and rehabilitation regimen. Both groups equally consisted of 17 patients. (Group 1; early rehabilitation group, Group 2; late rehabilitation group) All patients were examined retrospectively. Gender, age, dislocated side, dominant hand, recurrence, presence of additional pathologies, time of first and last dislocations preoperatively and numbers of dislocations were the demographic data recorded. At the final follow-up; the restriction in external rotation was measured by comparative goniometry and clinical evaluation was made using the Constant and Rowe scores. One-sample T-test, Mann-Whitney U Test, Crosstabs Chi Square Test and Shapiro-Wilk Tests used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients in Group 1 was found to be 25.1 ± 6.5 ( 17-43) years and in Group 2, 30.8 ± 6.8 (21-46) years. After a mean follow-up period of 14.7 months, no patients in Group 1 experienced a recurrence, whereas in Group 2 over the mean follow-up period of 38.5 months, there was dislocation, following episodes of subluxation, in only 1 patient (5.8%). When the parameters of first dislocation, last dislocation and number of dislocations were evaluated separately in two groups, no statistical difference was observed between the groups in the relevant parameters (n.s.). A statistically significant difference was determined between the groups in respect to the restriction in external rotation (p<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between the groups in respect to the Constant and Rowe scores (n.s.). CONCLUSION: The most important result of this study was that the early beginning of rehabilitation yielded less external rotation restriction than late beginning of rehabilitation. The absence of recurrence in the group of early beginning of rehabilitation reminds the question “does early rehabilitation reduce recurrence rates?” The findings in this study should be confirmed with further prospective, randomized and longer follow-up studies.