[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to evaluate the arthroscopic thermal capsular shrinkage for habitual posterior instability of the shoulder.
[Materials and methods] 4 patients (4 shoulders) were treated with arthroscopic thermal capsular shrinkage and reviewed. There were 3 males and 1 female. The mean age at operation was 22.8 years old ( 15-32 ), the mean follow-up period was 13.3 months (2-20). We evaluated the post operative results according to the JSS Shoulder Instability Score and Bigliani's rating system.
[Results] There were no recurrences in any of the cases. The average scores were 52 preoperatively and 97 postoperatively in the JSS Shoulder In. st3a bcialisteys wSerceore excellent and 1 case was good in Bigliani's rating system.
[Conclusion] Thermal capsular shrinkage is useful for habitual posterior instability of the shoulder in the short term results. The causes of habitual posterior instability are 1) a non-traumatic capsular redundancy and 2) a traumatic soft tissue lesion and 3) a rare case of osseous abnormality.