Evaluating the incidence and associated factors of subscapularis failure following anatomical total shoulder arthroplasty: a systematic review.

INTRODUCTION

Subscapularis dysfunction remains a devastating postoperative complication that negatively affects surgical outcomes following anatomic total shoulder arthroplasty (aTSA). This systematic review aims to determine the incidence of subscapularis failure following aTSA and evaluate the effectiveness of various surgical techniques and repair strategies.

METHODS

We conducted a comprehensive literature search following PRISMA guidelines across PubMed, Cochrane, and Embase databases up to August 21, 2023. Included studies explicitly described aTSA and related complications, excluding those that did not differentiate aTSA outcomes from other procedures or were reviews, case reports, or cadaveric studies. We extracted data on demographics, surgical approaches, subscapularis management techniques, repair strategies, and the subscapularis failure rates.

RESULTS

This review included 56 studies published between 2010 and 2023, covering 6173 patients. The overall subscapularis failure rate was 3.7%, with variability based on surgical approach and follow-up duration. Lesser tuberosity osteotomy (LTO) demonstrated the lowest failure rate at 1.7%. Subscapularis tenotomy had a failure rate of 3.3%. Studies with follow-up periods longer than five years reported a combined 6.2% failure rate for all approaches. Subscapularis repair techniques had comparable rates of failure as tendon-tendon repair showed 2.7% failure and transosseous repair showed 3.0% failure. We further stratified transosseous repair by subscapularis approach and found similar failure rates for LTO and tenotomy techniques had similar rates of failure, at 1.7% and 3.2%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

This systematic review highlights the variability in subscapularis failure rates following aTSA and underscores the influence of surgical technique and follow-up duration on these outcomes. Based on this review, LTO appears to offer slightly lower failure rates compared to tenotomy or peel techniques. Following tenotomy, transosseous repair showed higher failure rates compared to tendon-tendon suture repair. There is a need for further standardization in defining and reporting subscapularis failure, along with extended follow-up studies and more level I randomized trials to compare between technique types.