Objective To clinically evaluate the results of patients undergoing arthroscopic surgical treatment of anterior shoulder instability. Methods A retrospective study of 94 patients. With a minimum follow-up of 24 months, we sought to correlate the characteristics of the patients and the surgery, such as age, gender, type of injury (traumatic or atraumatic) and the patient's position during surgery (lateral decubitus and beach chair) with the results obtained, the recurrence rate, the lateral rotation loss, the residual pain, and the functional scores of Carter-Rowe, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and Constant-Murley. Results We observed a recurrent dislocation rate of 11.7%, lateral rotation loss in 37.23% of the patients, and some degree of residual pain in 51.6% of them. We obtained a mean Carter Rowe score of 85.37, representing 86% of good/excellent results. In the UCLA score, we obtained 88% of good/excellent results, similar to those obtained in the Constant-Murley score (86%). Conclusion The arthroscopic treatment of the anterior instability of the shoulder presents satisfactory results and low index of important complications, being the method of choice for most patients.
Keywords: arthroscopy; articular instability; retrospective studies; shoulder.