In Kaunas clinics, for the first time in Lithuania, a screwless system was used to perform reconstructive surgery of the shoulder joint | Life

“Shoulder joint reconstructive operations are needed by patients after severe shoulder injuries, when the rotator cuff tendons that rotate the shoulder, lift it, and help it move are torn,” says Prof. Rimtautas Gudas, Head of Sports Trauma and Arthroscopy Department of Kaunas Clinics Orthopedic Traumatology Clinic. “Operation with the new system will make it easier for doctors to work, increase the probability of tendon attachment to the humerus tuberosity, and patients will feel less pain in the postoperative period.”

During arthroscopic surgery, the rotator cuff tendons need to be attached to the bone using anchoring screws that are screwed into the patient’s humerus. In order to ensure strong fixation of the tendons of the shoulder, it may be necessary to use as many as four or even more such screws per patient.

“Anchoring screws sometimes migrate or even fail to hold because some people have soft (porous) bone, which causes the screws to dislodge and require repeat shoulder surgery,” explains the professor.

Thanks to the new system, the fixation is performed minimally invasively through channels made with the help of a special system, through which, at the same time, through the ruptured tendons, strong fixation threads are passed endoscopically, which press the ruptured tendons to the bone. “The advantage of this system is that channels away from the tendons are made in strong bone, the so-called part of the cortical bone, which significantly reduces the risk of the fixation threads cutting the bone,” says prof. R. Gud.

“The system makes it possible to reconstruct even very large rotator cuff tears of the shoulder without the use of anchoring screws,” says Prof. R. Good. – The new system is characterized by an exceptionally high fixation force, and when fixing the tendons, they are attached to the bone by widely and evenly distributing the fixation forces over a larger area, thus avoiding strong pressure in only one place of the bone.”

The head of the sports injuries and arthroscopy sector adds that the new method also helps to avoid the migrations or protrusions of screws that occur, and reduces the risk of infection, because there are no implants where bacteria form dangerous colony films.

The new system provides not only economic benefits – no expensive anchoring screws are used during the operation, but also allows patients to recover faster after the operation.

“It has been observed that when the tendons are fixed with special fixation threads (without anchoring screws), patients consume significantly less painkillers, they do not need narcotic analgesics,” notes the professor. “Meanwhile, when tendons are fixed with anchoring screws, patients feel somewhat stronger pain, they often need narcotic analgesics, and they consume more painkillers during the entire healing period.”

Prof. R. Gudus was helped to perform the first rotator tendon attachment surgery with this system. Filip Hudeček, an orthopedic doctor working in the Czech Republic. He has already performed over 800 such operations worldwide. Dr. F. Hudeček believes that the doctors of the Kaunas Clinics are a particularly experienced, professional, proactive team that will successfully perform reconstructive surgeries of the shoulder joint using this system in the future.

“Our goal is to spread the word about this innovation, in the future to teach as many colleagues as possible how to operate shoulder joints in a new way, in order to avoid protrusion of the anchoring screws and to help the country’s patients feel better,” says Prof. R. Gud.

Kaunas clinics information