What Is Reverse Shoulder Arthroplasty?

A common question is, what is reverse shoulder arthroplasty, and are reverse shoulder replacement and arthroplasty the same?

We go inside the shoulder and replace it with a new metal ball and socket. Now, in reverse, it’s flipped.

In normal anatomy, the ball is on the arm and shoulder joint, and the socket is on the side. It’s a golf ball and a tee. In reverse, we put the ball where it was, and the socket where the ball was, and what that does is biomechanical. It allows you to use your arm without a rotator cuff. That’s why it was initially developed for patients with arthritis and massive rotator cuff tears.

If you put in the standard replacement, you weren’t addressing the biomechanical problem. With a rotator cuff tear, whereas the reverse is because of changing the biomechanics of your shoulder and flipping it if you have a deltoid muscle, you can lift that arm. It was like magic. We use it for many other things now because it grows into the bone, so I would say 70% of my shoulder will play since now or reverse it. It’s a wonderful tool, and we love it.