Arthroscopy may not accurately estimate glenoid bone loss in patients with shoulder instability

Researchers retrospectively reviewed information for 22 patients (with a mean age of 25.4 years) who had recurrent anterior shoulder instability and glenoid bone loss, and underwent preoperative bilateral shoulder CT scans. Using the bare-spot method, researchers arthroscopically estimated glenoid bone loss. They also created 3-D CT reconstructions using patients’ CT scans. In addition, investigators measured glenoid bone loss using the surface area, Pico, ratio and anteroposterior (AP) distance-from-bare area methods. The reliability of arthroscopy to measure glenoid bone loss was determined using the mean percent loss from each method compared with the percent bone loss estimated at the time of arthroscopy.