Cartilage defects of the humeral head in young, active patients provide a challenge to treating surgeons. The causes of humeral head osteochondral lesions are variable, but these lesions most commonly result from trauma and recurrent glenohumeral instability. Palliative and reparative techniques such as arthroscopic debridement and microfracture have traditionally been used as surgical treatment but have high failure rates. Similarly to surgical trends in the knee, cartilage restoration in the shoulder is becoming more prevalent in younger patients. Osteochondral allograft transplantation (OAT) has been used as a joint-preserving surgical option to restore hyaline cartilage in multiple joints for decades. Although OAT is more commonly used to re-establish the subchondral bony architecture in the treatment of recurrent shoulder instability, the procedure may also be indicated in young, active patients with focal humeral head chondral defects. OAT has been shown in early studies to provide improvement in functional outcome scores and good long-term graft survival with relatively low rates of complications. This report describes our straightforward, reproducible technique for the treatment of large, oblong chondral defects of the humeral head using OAT.
© 2021 by the Arthroscopy Association of North America. Published by Elsevier.