Epidemiology of the Frequency, Etiology, Direction, and Severity (FEDS) system for classifying glenohumeral instability

Abstract

Hypothesis: The purpose of this multicenter epidemiologic study was to determine the distribution of patients within the Frequency, Etiology, Direction, and Severity (FEDS) classification system to determine which categories are of clinical importance.

Methods: Shoulder instability patients were identified using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision coding data from 3 separate institutions from 2005-2010. Data were collected retrospectively. Details of instability were recorded in accordance with the FEDS classification system. Each patient was assigned a classification within the FEDS system. After all patients were assigned to a group, each group was individually analyzed and compared with the other groups.

Results: There are a total of 36 possible combinations within the FEDS system. Only 16 categories were represented by at least 1% of our patient population. Six categories captured at least 5% of all patients with shoulder instability. Only 2 categories represented greater than 10% of the population: solitary, traumatic, anterior dislocation, with 95 patients (24.8%), and occasional, traumatic, anterior dislocation, with 63 patients (16.4%).

Conclusions: There are 16 categories within the FEDS classification that are clinically significant. Solitary, traumatic, anterior dislocation and occasional, traumatic, anterior dislocation were the most frequently observed in our cohort.

Keywords: Shoulder; classification; dislocation; instability; multidirectional instability; subluxation.