Complications in arthroscopic shoulder surgery

Arthroscopic surgery of the shoulder is considered a safe technique, yet a variety of complications have been described. There are few published reports on the incidence of these complications. The aim of this study is to evaluate the complication rate of arthroscopic shoulder surgery. We retrospectively evaluated a series of 179 consecutive arthroscopic (n=141) and combined (arthroscopic plus open; n=38) procedures performed by the same surgeon. The overall complication rate was 9.49%. Combined procedures had a 5.26% complication rate and arthroscopic procedures a 10.63% complication rate.