What Happens To The Rotator Cuff After Reverse Shoulder Replacement?

People often ask what happens to the rotator cuff muscles after reverse shoulder replacement. The answer is nothing.

People often get reverse shoulders because they’re arthritic and maybe have a large rotator cuff tear that can’t be fixed. It just depends on the indications. But we don’t do anything to the rotator cuff muscles. The reverse shoulder, because of its mechanics, allows the human shoulder to move without a large port part of the rotator cuff.

There are still some cuff muscles in the back. If you have them, they function better.
But you don’t need any of the rotator cuff to lift your arm after a reverse. So we don’t do the reverse because the rotator cuff often cannot be repaired. It’s gone, or the muscles are irreparable now.

There’s a rotator cuff in the front. We got the subscap opened up and then closed to get the implant in but the rest of the rotator cuff, we leave them alone. We don’t mess with it.