OBJECTIVE: To review and compare treatments (1) after primary traumatic shoulder dislocation aimed at minimising the risk of chronic shoulder instability and (2) for chronic post-traumatic shoulder instability. DESIGN: Intervention systematic review with random effects network meta-analysis and direct comparison meta-analyses. DATA SOURCES: Electronic databases (Ovid Medline, Cochrane Clinical Trials Register, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Embase, Scopus, CINAHL, Ovid Medline epub ahead of print, in-process and other non-indexed citations, Ovid Medline Daily, DARE, HTA, NHSEED, Web of Science) and reference lists were searched from inception to 15 January 2018. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR SELECTING STUDIES: Randomised trials comparing any interventions either after a first-time, traumatic shoulder dislocation or chronic post-traumatic shoulder instability, with a shoulder instability, function or quality of life outcome. RESULTS: Twenty-two randomised controlled trials were included. There was moderate quality evidence suggesting that labrum repair reduced the risk of future shoulder dislocation (relative risk 0.15; 95% CI 0.03 to 0.8, p = 0.026), and that with non-surgical management 47% of patients did not experience shoulder redislocation. Very low to low-quality evidence suggested no benefit of immobilisation in external rotation versus internal rotation. There was low-quality evidence that an open procedure was superior to arthroscopic surgery for preventing shoulder redislocations. CONCLUSIONS: There was moderate-quality evidence that half of the patients managed with physiotherapy after a first-time traumatic shoulder dislocation did not experience recurrent shoulder dislocations. If chronic instability develops, surgery could be considered. There was no evidence regarding the effectiveness of surgical management for post-traumatic chronic shoulder instability.
Reproduced with permission from the BMJ Publishing Group.

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