What is shoulder replacement surgery

Your shoulder right now is a ball and socket joint. Originally when shoulder replacement surgery was developed it was developed in what we would call an anatomic fashion replacing the ball with a new metal ball and replacing the socket with a new plastic socket 

such that it was anatomic it was just like you and that shoulder surgery worked great for people with severe arthritis.

Still, there were limitations that surgery involved cutting one of the rotator cuff muscles to put the parts in to exchange your old ball and socket for a new ball and socket.

when we were done with that surgery you'd have to repair that muscle and you'd have to after surgery immobilize the shoulder to make sure that heald well if you didn't immobilize the shoulder well those stitches could all pop out and the shoulder wouldn't work well additionally you may know that the rotator cuff can were and tear over the course of time and so five years down the road 20 years down the roads if you developed a rotator cuff tear

well that shoulder would work well for you anymore and so they were lots of things that could be improved upon the results were great for the vast  majority of people but the recovery was kind of long and there was something that could limit your ultimate result and over time just like every surgery other technology things have evolved and surgery is a great example that today shoulder surgery replacement is done much differently

Today in India the vast majority of  shoulder replacements are done in what we would call  a reversed fashion putting a ball where the socket was and a socket where the ball was so that the articulation so that the joint is reversed and that has some great benefits that change reversing the ball and socket made it so that your shoulder needs a rotator cuff to work properly in fact that the shoulder replacement was designed specifically  for people who didn't have a rotator cuff and so it was a really great tool to help people of an irreparable rotator cuff

Tea well it turns out that that shoulder works really well people even who have a good rotator cuff it just doesn't require the rotator cuff and because of that we don't have to worry about say repairing that muscle in the front of the shoulder you can use your shoulder right away because it works great with or without that muscle and long term if you develop a tear in your rotator cuff for whatever reasons down the road it doesn't matter shoulder works great with or without a rotator cuff and so there some really great benefits to this technology now today in my practice about 95 percent of patients who need a shoulder replacement get a reverse shoulder replacement there still a role for anatomic shoulder replacement those are much less common changers are if you seeing me for a shoulder replacement you're getting a reverse shoulder replacement.

Surgery & anesthesia 

Getting reverse shoulder replacement now what about the surgery itself now typically commonly that surgery is done in a relatively minimally invasive fashion typically an incision of about four inches or so for the person of the average size to take out the old parts and put the new parts in and fortunately that surgery can be done many times

with regional anesthesia and some sedation so we don't have to give you really heavy general anesthesia that's going to make you groggy and sick and hungover it can be a really kind of a quick process a quick recovery such that  the majority of patients can actually be done well and safely and comfortably in an outpatient home relatively comfortably

After the surgery additionally, I talked about with original surgery we had to immobilize the arm for a period of time to protect that muscle we don,t have to worry about that now today we just give people a sling and it's just for comfort I tell you probably should wear for the first 10 days or so by and large just to keep it comfortable to keep the swelling down  but don't need to wear it out of hand you don't need to wear it because we have to protect something, in fact, we like you to use your arm sooner rather than later the sooner that you use the arm the quicker you get your muscles back the quicker you get your mobility back and so those have been really great   benefits of reverse shoulder  replacement  

Results and expectation

After surgery, many people will ask me what life is like after surgery am I going to be able to throw a football or play tennis, or do other physical activities

well I like to talk about the results in terms of both restrictions and limitations and those are two different things let me explain restrictions are things  that I put or you I say don't do that or you are going to get in trouble now initially after surgery

we have really one restriction that is I don't like you to push off with your like on the arm up for about six weeks after surgery because that can cause your shoulder to be unstable we don't want to do that for about six weeks but after that, you can really use your shoulder to the degree that you want you can lift and pull you can be active you can play tennis you can play pickleball you could cut firewood you can be as active as you want but realize the more active you are more you do

with this the more you do with this the more wear and tear you get in your shoulder wore out your shoulder had problems and we replaced this with metal and plastic is no different of course it can wear out too and so you have to be a little bit mindful of that you want to regain your physical activity your quality of life but you also don't want to be having to go through the surgery because thinks wore out so you have to really balance things out a bot now from a function standpoint most people can do routine activities of life you can get dressed you put dishes away in the cupboard you can use your arm for simple activities but there are some limitations some things that you really just many people can't do

After surgery and the most common one is that it's really hard to get your arm around your back after surgery I tell people you can expect to be able to get to your back pocket maybe to pull your wallet out but tucking your shit in behind your back and certainly clasping a bra strap behind your back those are very difficult activities to do after shoulder replacement surgery even under the best of circumstances now I do have some people that can do that but you can't count on being able to do those things

After surgery and so if that is a limiting factor for you say you know what I don't want to consider  living my life where I can't you know clasp a bra strap behind my back well then maybe this surgery isn't you have to consider that before surgery because that may be  a limitation  with the surgery itself