Muscle force and excursion requirements and moment arm analysis of a posterior-superior offset reverse total shoulder...

Current reverse total shoulder arthroplasty prosthesis designs do not permit offset of the humerus in the sagittal plane. Posteriorly shifting the humerus has the theoretical benefit of lengthening the infraspinatus and teres minor muscles and their external rotation moment arms, thereby improving the tension and efficiency of each external rotator and subsequently requiring each muscle to produce less force to rotate the arm. A cadaveric shoulder controller was used to quantify the impact of a novel posterior-superior offset reverse shoulder prosthesis on muscle length, moment arms, and muscle forces relative to a non-offset reverse shoulder design during two different motions: scapular plane abduction and internal/external rotation. The results of this study demonstrate that both the non-offset and offset reverse shoulder designs had similar force and excursion demands of the infraspinatus and teres minor muscles during both scapular abduction and internal and external rotation. Additionally, the offset reverse shoulder design was associated with significantly less over-tensioning of the middle and posterior deltoid and significantly more anatomic tensioning of the teres minor than the non-offset design. However, the offset reverse shoulder was observed to have more impingement than the non-offset design. These findings support the feasibility of this design: by restoring a more anatomic resting length to the deltoid and teres minor, the posterior-superior offset rTSA design may provide better teres minor function and rotational strength and may decrease the incidence of acromial stress fractures relative to the non-offset design. Clinical follow-up is required to confirm these findings.