Surgical Position of Lateral-Tilted Supine is Suitable for Proximal Humeral Fracture Operations in Geriatric Patients

OBJECTIVE: To report a new surgical position of lateral-tilted supine (LTS) for geriatric proximal humeral fracture operations. METHODS: Between January 2016 and December 2020, we adopted the LTS position for operations in 65 geriatric patients with proximal humeral fractures. RESULTS: Sixty-five patients including 25 males and 40 females aged 80.3 ± 8.5 years. The LTS position could be used for almost all proximal humeral fracture surgeries, such as ORIF with plate, suture anchor, and other fixation in 4 patients, open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) with multiLoc nailing in 48, and shoulder hemiarthroplasty (SHA) in 13. Surgical position setting times were 11.47 ± 2.14 min. The systolic blood pressure changes before and after positioning were 15.07 ± 8.72 mmHg. All of the C-arm X-ray directions, including the cephalic side, contralateral side, and ipsilateral side, can be used in the LTS position surgeries. No surgical complications or no surgical position-related complications were found in these 65 cases. CONCLUSION: The surgical position of LTS is suitable for geriatric proximal humeral fracture operations.