History of Posterior Shoulder Instability

Posterior shoulder instability (PSI), although less common than anterior instability, is becoming an increasingly recognised pathology irrespective of the underlying cause. The symptoms can be related to actual dislocation if traumatic, or they can be non-specific with pain and weakness and feeling on instability. Over the last century, several open procedures have been described with most fallen out of favour due to either higher recurrence rate or complication rate in comparison with arthroscopic treatment of PSI. This chapter provides a brief review of these open procedures and the effect of arthroscopic surgery on recurrence and complication rate in comparison.