The Rise of Reverse Total Shoulder Surgery (Biloine Young @ OTW)
If the patient is over 70, has arthritis and tears his rotator cuff, the best solution may be Reverse Total Shoulder Replacement surgery. “The Reverse Total Shoulder is the newest and most dynamic advance in shoulder replacement surgery in the last 10 years,” said Dr. Peter Reynolds of the Santa Cruz [California] Orthopaedic Institute. “It really can revitalize the quality of life for those suffering from arthritis and large rotator cuff tears. Unfortunately, most patients and many physicians aren’t aware of it.”
As noted by PRWeb, rotator cuff injuries increase significantly with age. Those over 70 are at very high risk of the injury as well as being part of a group that is also likely to suffer from arthritis. The combination of these two conditions can be truly debilitating. Until recently there has been no reliable surgical option.
Other candidates for the procedure, Reynolds said, are those with rotator cuff tears that are so bad they can’t be fixed; where the patient cannot raise his arm from the side, even though the deltoid muscle is working.
As Reynolds describes the surgery, the Reverse Total Shoulder Replacement actually reverses the natural anatomy of the shoulder. He attaches a metal “ball” to the shoulder blade or scapula, and fixes a plastic cup to the top of the humerus, the upper-arm bone, for the “socket.” This reversal allows the large shoulder deltoid muscle to move the arm and provides a fixed point of rotation for the muscles to work against which restores mobility and strength. Reynolds has found that this relatively new surgical procedure is giving hope to older patients who previously had little recourse.