Diagnostic Shoulder Arthroscopy

Abstract

Shoulder arthroscopy turned, in the last 20 years, in a fundamental diagnostic and treatment tool and should be used in the right indication, with the correct technique and taking into account the “state of the art” for the treatment of the pathology. Behind the technical gesture lies the ability of the surgeon to recognize what is not normal, if the structural damage observed is the primary cause of the patient complaints and finally the decisions of the correct way to deal with the problem.

In this chapter, the rational use of the space available at the operating room with a correct positioning of the operating table and its dependence on the patient positioning (beach chair position and lateral decubitus position) is approached together with the enumeration of the necessary tools to perform the diagnostic arthroscopic procedure.

General principles applied to all arthroscopic procedures including portal placement are described and a systematic approach of the glenohumeral and subacromial diagnostic arthroscopy is proposed. For the first, a division in four quadrants: superior, inferior, anterior, and posterior, is proposed to systematize the approach and limit the diagnostic errors.