Arthroscopic removal of an intramedullary nail in the humerus.

The most frequent criticism of antegrade humeral nailing is its potentially deleterious effect on shoulder function owing to the trauma to the rotator cuff at the insertion point. This problem may also occur when removing an intramedullary nail from the humerus. In an effort to decrease the trauma to the rotator cuff at the nail insertion site during removal of an intramedullary nail from the humerus and to allow recovery of shoulder function as soon as possible after removal, we performed arthroscopic removal of the intramedullary nail and arthroscopic rotator cuff repair. The advantages of this method include the fact that it is a less invasive approach, which causes minimal disruption of the rotator cuff, requires fewer days in hospital, and allows simultaneous arthroscopic correction of the accompanying lesion.