The coracoid transfer for recurrent dislocation of the shoulder. Technical aspects of the Bristow-Latarjet procedure.

One hundred and twelve shoulders with recurrent anterior dislocation were treated with the Bristow-Latarjet procedure and had a two to five-year follow-up after surgery. The incidence of redislocation was 6 per cent, and an additional 7 per cent of the patients reported occasional subluxation. In 106 shoulders, a radiographic study was carried out in order to determine the importance of factors such as healing and position of the transferred coracoid process with regard to the postoperative clinical results. No redislocation or subluxation occurred in the forty patients in whom the transplant showed osseous or fibrous union at the scapula and was located inferior to the equator of the glenoid and less than one centimeter medial to its rim. In shoulders in which either the transplant had migrated more than 1.5 centimeters from that position or was placed one centimeter or more medial to the glenoid rim, the incidence of redislocation or subluxation was significantly increased.