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Photoelastic analysis of shoulder arthroplasty: Current descriptive analysis of research in scientific journals

Abstract:

Shoulder joint complex poses a biomechanical challenge due to its complexity and the number of structures involved. Shoulder pain is one of the most prevalent reasons for consultation in primary health. The main chosen surgical treatments for joint degeneration, as a consequence of the chronic injury of the rotator cuff, is reverse arthroplasty. Photoelasticity is an experimental method used to evaluate the strain environment under mechanical loading. The aim of this study is to present a systematic revision of the literature in academic journals for the period 2000–2017 related to the study of stresses and deformations in the shoulder joint with arthroplasty through photoelasticity technique. To obtain the data, specialised search engines were used: Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science and PubMed. Descriptive investigation was performed through a combination of values and boolean algebra. A total of 13 articles were selected, which were reviewed and classified in two categories (photoelasticity analysis in the shoulder joint without prosthesis and study of photoelasticity in the shoulder with arthroplasty). There distribution of articles by year, journal and investigation method was also described. The photoelasticity by stress freezing allows the study of internal zones, something that is not possible with other techniques. The analysis is frequently performed with prosthetic components of total anatomical shoulder arthroplasty, but there are barely any precedents in reverse shoulder arthroplasty. Therefore, new investigations that show the effect of reverse arthroplasty are suggested, since it is present in the treatment of many other prevalent pathologies.