Medical Disclaimer

Capital Health Summit is a patient-education site about shoulder replacement, covering the total, reverse, and partial (hemiarthroplasty) operations. It is here to help you understand the subject and to keep you company while you weigh it up. It is not medical advice, and this page sets out, plainly, the limits to hold it within.

Nothing here is medical advice

Nothing on this site is medical, surgical, or professional advice, and none of it replaces a consultation with a qualified surgeon who can examine your shoulder and read your own imaging. The pages are general information plus one person’s account. They cannot know your joint, the state of your rotator cuff, your general health, or your history, and they must never be used to settle for or against surgery on their own.

One shoulder is not a template

A large part of this site is my own story: the sleepless nights, the sling, the slow return of reach after a reverse replacement. That is a single shoulder and a single recovery. Joints, rotator cuffs, implants, and healing differ enormously from one person to the next, so what happened to me is not a prediction, a benchmark, or a recommendation. Please do not read my result as a preview of yours.

No result can be promised

A shoulder replacement is very good at relieving worn-out and cuff-related pain and at giving back useful movement, but it does not turn back the clock and it does not restore a twenty-year-old shoulder. Overhead reach and rotation usually improve without becoming full, and reaching behind the back can stay limited after a reverse replacement in particular. Longevity figures, such as around 90% of replacements still in place at 10 years, are ranges drawn from registries and studies, not commitments. What is realistic for your shoulder is a judgement only your surgeon can make after examining you.

This is major surgery, with real risks

Shoulder replacement is an operation, usually under a general anaesthetic often combined with a nerve block, with a genuine recovery and genuine risks. These include infection (roughly 1 in 100 of primary replacements, and somewhat higher after a reverse), injury to a nerve such as the axillary nerve, dislocation or instability (more common after a reverse than an anatomic replacement), loosening or wear of the components over time, and a fracture around the implant. Reading about these does not lessen them. Only a surgeon assessing you can weigh them against your particular case.

Which operation is a surgical judgement

Whether you need a total, a reverse, or a hemiarthroplasty turns mostly on the state of your rotator cuff, not on your age, and that assessment belongs to a surgeon holding your scans and examining the joint. This site can explain the fork in the road; it cannot tell you which way your own shoulder should turn.

No doctor and patient relationship

Using this site, emailing us, or reading a page a surgeon has reviewed does not create any doctor and patient or professional relationship between you and Douglas Prentice, Mr Robert Kessler, or Capital Health Summit. Our reviewer checks that the general content is accurate; he is not your surgeon and is not treating you.

In an emergency

Do not rely on this site if something is going wrong. Spreading redness around the wound, a fever, a wound that is weeping, sudden new weakness in the arm, calf pain or breathlessness, or pain that is climbing rather than easing are reasons to contact your surgical team the same day, or to call your local emergency number (911 in the United States, 999 in the UK, or 112 across much of Europe).

Always ask a surgeon first

Before making any decision about a shoulder replacement, and before acting on anything you read here, speak to a qualified orthopaedic surgeon and follow their advice over anything on this site. If in doubt, ask them, not us.