Nonprosthetic glenoid arthroplasty with humeral hemiarthroplasty and total shoulder arthroplasty yield similar self-assessed outcomes in the management of comparable patients with glenohumeral arthritis

The risk of glenoid component failure has led us to explore nonprosthetic glenoid arthroplasty coupled with humeral hemiarthroplasty, the “ream and run” (R&R) procedure, for the management of glenohumeral arthritis in active patients. We hypothesized that patients having a R&R procedure would have outcomes comparable with those of similar patients having a total shoulder arthroplasty (TSA). A case-matched control study compared 35 consecutive patients (32 men, 3 women) with an average age of 56 years, after R&R with matched controls having TSA. The respective Simple Shoulder Test (SST) scores for the R&R and TSA groups were 4.5 and 4.0 before surgery, 7.8 and 9.6 at 12 months, 8.3 and 10.2 at 18 months, 8.9 and 9.4 at 24 months, 9.4 and 9.6 at 30 months, and 9.5 and 10.0 at 36 months. The “ream and run” procedure can offer similar functional recovery to patients with total shoulder arthroplasty, although the time to recovery may be longer.