Hello
Having seen so many people with shoulder pain, we know how often they decide to go the surgical route to address their problems.
Thinking that is the best option, and they still end up with problems and come to us.
We wanted to look at the facts on how likely it will be that you will need another shoulder operation after the first one. In this case we will look at shoulder replacements.
Let us look at the evidence
The name of the study is called “Reverse shoulder arthroplasty. Part 2: Systematic review of reoperations, revisions, problems, and complications”. A systematic review is when they look at the findings of many studies. It is the best evidence we have.
37 studies were included involving 3150 patients (mean [SD] percentage of females, age, and follow-up of 72%.
They found that “Use of deltopectoral approach and lateralized prostheses had significantly higher risk of need for revision surgery (P = 0.008) and glenoid loosening.”
So this approach is more likely for you to need another surgery because the shoulder replacement joint comes loose!!
“Reverse Shoulder Arthroplasty (RSA) for revision of anatomic prosthesis demonstrated higher risk of reoperation, revision, hematoma, instability , and infection compared with most of the other indications.”
“The risk of reoperations, revisions, problems, and complications after RSA was increased in revision cases compared with other indications.”
Do you want to have an operation that leads to you needing more operations with even more complications?
Or do you want to try an approach that prevents you ever needing an operation.
Jason
