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.