Is Shoulder Replacement a Major Operation?

It depends on what you consider a major.

In most people’s minds, staying in the hospital is a major operation. Our patients don’t stay in the hospital anymore. They go home as an outpatient. If surgeries take hours and hours, that’s a major operation.

In my practice, we are hyper-specialized and we’re very efficient. We do these procedures in less than 30 minutes. You don’t lose much blood. You have minimal pain after surgery and can use your arm immediately.

When you tell people those three or four things, it doesn’t suddenly become a major surgery in their minds. However, it’s still an operation. It should be taken seriously by both the patient and the surgeon.

But in terms of what people picture as a major operation, they think, “I’m gonna be in the hospital for days. It’s gonna take hours and hours to do the surgery. I won’t be able to use my arm for months.” The answer to all those questions is no, no, no.

It will be a contemporary, modern shoulder surgery done by a hyper-specialized surgeon. If that’s what you consider major, it’s not major surgery anymore.