As your body ages, your bones and joints also age

As your body ages, your bones and joints also age. Sometimes this results in pain and the wearing of the bones and joints. As this happens, it can mean that you will eventually have surgery to replace your joints and one of the joints that is often replaced is the shoulder. When you have shoulder joint surgery new surfaces are often created on the joint so that pain is reduced and movement is restored.

When someone needs his shoulder joint replaced, the ends of the humerus bone and the scapula will be cut off and be replaced with artificial surfaces such as plastic, porcelain, or metal. These pieces are then held together with surgical cement or a type or surgical material that will grow into the bone and joint with time, making cement unnecessary.

During shoulder replacement surgery the shoulder surgeon will replace the very tip of the upper arm and replace it with a metal piece that they put into the bone of the upper arm. It usually has a rounded head that fits into the cup-like surface of the joint. It is then smoothed and capped and inserted into the joint.

Many shoulder surgeons have been recently trying new ways of doing shoulder surgery without doing a complete shoulder replacement when the patient suffers from extreme pain in the joint due to arthritis. This is called a reverse shoulder replacement and involves removing the bone that has been damaged by the wear and tear of the arthritis, smoothing the ends, attaching the cup like piece so that it will fit into the joint. So far, it has had good results in the test patients.

When these joint replacement surgeries are being performed, the patient is usually given general anesthetics, but if the patient prefers or does not have complete coverage by their insurance, local anesthetic is used. You may also be encouraged to take antibiotics both before and after surgery so that you can lessen the chances of getting infection.

However, there are some risks of joint replacement surgery that your shoulder surgeon will share with you before your surgery is performed. These include blood clots if you are inactive after surgery, infection in the wound or joint in people who have other health problems, injury to the nerves in the surgery area, problems with healing, difficulty getting the right motion out of the joint, dislocation and instability of the new joint by too much activity too soon after the surgery, and the risks that normally come with general anesthesia.

Any time after you have joint replacement surgery, make sure that you get all the instructions from your shoulder surgeon so that you know how to care for yourself post-surgery and have the best healing and post surgical experience.