SLAP Lesions: Trends in Treatment

Area of Science:

• Orthopaedic surgery
• Sports medicine
• Arthroscopic procedures

Background:

• Superior labrum anterior-posterior (SLAP) tears are common shoulder injuries.
• Trends in surgical repair of SLAP tears and related procedures are important for understanding practice patterns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze trends in SLAP repairs over a 10-year period.
• To examine changes in patient demographics, specifically age, for SLAP repairs.
• To compare the frequency of SLAP repairs to other arthroscopic shoulder procedures.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective review of arthroscopic shoulder surgery cases from 2004-2014.
• Utilized Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes to identify procedures.
• Recorded SLAP repair cases (CPT 29807), patient age, and SLAP tear classification.
• Employed linear regression to assess statistical significance of trends.

Main Results:

• A total of 9,765 arthroscopic shoulder procedures were analyzed.
• SLAP repairs constituted 6.3% of cases (619 patients), with an average age of 31.2 years.
• The average age of patients undergoing SLAP repair significantly decreased over time (P < .001).
• Type II SLAP tears were the most common indication for repair (P = .015).
• The relative percentage of SLAP repairs significantly decreased over the study period (P < .001).
• Biceps tenodesis procedures showed a significant increase in number and percentage over time (P = .0024 and P = .0099, respectively).

Conclusions:

• The frequency and relative proportion of SLAP repairs have declined in this practice over the past decade.
• Biceps tenodesis procedures have become more common.
• The average age of patients undergoing SLAP repair has decreased, with a predominance of Type II tears.