Outcome of Bankart repair in contact versus non-contact athletes

Background: The clinical results of arthroscopic Bankart repair for contact athletes varies according to published reports. The purposes of this study were to analyze the clinical outcome of open or arthroscopic Bankart repair and to investigate the results incontactand non-contactathletes. Hypothesis: Clinical outcome ofarthroscopic Bankart repairis similar tothat ofopen procedure. Patients and methods: One hundred patients with recurrent anterior shoulder dislocation without a large bony defect wereretrospectively reviewed. Fifty-one contact and 49 non-contact athletes were found with a mean follow-up of 17. months. Forty-nine shoulders underwent arthroscopic Bankart repairs; 51 shoulders hadopen Bankart repairs. Results: In non-contact athletes, there was a 5% (1/22 cases) recurrence ratein the open groupand 4% (1/27 cases)in the arthroscopic group. In contrast, in contact athletes, there was a 10% (3/29 cases) recurrence ratein the open groupand 14% (3/22 cases)in the arthroscopic group. There was no significant difference in the recurrence rate betweencontactandnon-contactathletes, although contact athletes showed two to three times a higher recurrence rate than that of non-contact athletes. The Rowe score and Constant score showed no significant difference between the two procedures and between the contact and non-contact athletes. The rate of the complete return to sports showed no significant difference betweencontactandnon-contactathletes. Conclusion: The recurrence rate of Bankart repair in the contact athletes was 2 times higher in the open group and 3 times higher in the arthroscopic group than in the non-contact athletes. Clinical outcome ofarthroscopic Bankart repairwas similar tothat ofopen procedure. Level of evidence: Level IV, retrospective study.