Chondrolysis of the glenohumeral joint: level of evidence and additional analyses.

摘要

We have studied the article "Chondrolysis of the Glenohumeral Joint After Infusion of Bupivacaine Through an Intra-articular Pain Pump Catheter: A Report of 18 Cases" by Anderson et al. and are writing comment to both on the Level of Evidence assigned to that study and to report additional analyses based on the presented data. The authors explicitly note that during the study time period, there were 113 glenohumeral arthroscopies, with 45 pain pumps used. As such, the study actually compares 2 cohorts of surgeries, a cohort that was exposed to the use of an intra-articular pain pump and a non-exposed cohort. Because the primary outcome measured is whether shoulders had chondrolysis after surgery, the study by Anderson et al. appears to be a retrospective cohort study or retrospective comparative study that provides Level II (IIb) evidence rather than Level IV evidence typically ascribed to a case series report.