It is an excellent technique that can be used to diagnose and treat shoulder pain, instability/dislocations, rotator cuff tears, bone spurs, labral tears and other shoulder disorders. It is much less invasive than a wide-open shoulder procedure. It involves many of the same tools used for knee arthroscopy with which so many people are quite familiar. Small instruments about the size of pencils are inserted through poke holes inside of the shoulder joint to perform various tasks in the joint- one as a camera and other as working tools. Because of the minimally invasive aspect of the small incisions and instruments, patients recover from the surgery much faster. Therefore, if a patient has a rotator cuff tear, shoulder pain especially after dislocations, a loose shoulder, bone spurs, these can be treated with shoulder arthroscopy allowing the patient to recover faster than the typical open shoulder procedure. We feel this technique is a great benefit to the patient and surgeon.

Similar to the shoulder arthroscopy, but more commonly performed, small instruments are inserted through poke holes into the knee joint. A camera is passed into the joint to allow visualization while the other portals are used for working instruments. In this manner, cartilage tears can then be treated. Sometimes a repair is possible, but if the tear is irreparable, trimming or shaving of the cartilage is done to allow as much stable cartilage to remain. After surgery, moving the knee is encouraged along with walking giving the patient mobility the same day of surgery.

This procedure is quite similar to knee and shoulder arthroscopy. The arthroscope is placed within the joint for visualization, and another portal is placed to perform tasks with small instruments. Cartilage defects can be treated this way along with scar tissue that forms after one twists their ankle multiple times. Therefore, many disease processes of the ankle can be diagnosed and treated using this instrument.