Instabilité antérieure récidivante de l'épaule chez le rugbyman. Résultats d'une série de 85 épaules opérées par la technique de Latarjet avec un recul moyen de sept ans

The stabilization of an unstable chronic shoulder is a difficult challenge in the contact sportsman especially the rugby player. We report our experience of the modified Latarjet procedure with a retrospective series of 85 shoulders (79 rugbymen at 75 months follow-up). It acted all young men with a prevalence of dominant shoulder, occupying all the stations (over-representation of the third lines). Eighty percent presented osseous lesions; the first luxation was traumatic during a tackle. We describe our technique and our postoperative protocol. Seven percent experienced recurrence of their instability after a new traumatism and 67% returned to rugby within 8 months by keeping for some of them a sport practice functional embarrassment (16 patients). Only two mechanical complications were observed, 93% of the patients were satisfied with their intervention.