What is a reverse shoulder replacement?

This is an excellent question. In a standard shoulder replacement, we replace the "ball" and "socket" of your shoulder with artificial parts in their natural positions.In a reverse shoulder replacement, we literally reverse the position of the ball and socket. We attach the artificial ball to the shoulder blade and the socket to the upper arm bone.

We do this specifically for patients who have both severe shoulder arthritis and a severely damaged or torn rotator cuff. This clever design changes the mechanics of the shoulder, allowing the strong deltoid muscle on the outside of your shoulder to lift the arm, bypassing the non-working rotator cuff.