What will happen during your total shoulder replacement surgery?

I wanted to talk to you about what it means to have a total shoulder replacement. So, we’re going to talk about an anatomic total replacement, and what that means is we are replacing the ball and the socket of your shoulder because of your arthritis. So this is what it looks like on an x-ray. This is a typical picture for osteoarthritis (gestures to x-ray images on the computer screen). Your should is made up of a ball as well as a socket. In arthritis, you lose the cartilage between the ball and the socket. So we normally should see a space between these two and as you can see they’re riding bone-on-bone. That’s what’s causing your pain. So when it’s time to have the should replacement, what we do is replace that ball and socket. This is what it looks like. (Holds up a metal ball replacement piece and plastic socket replacement piece.) The two of them together make your new joint, and they articulate so that you don’t have that pain anymore. You don’t have the bone-on-bone. And then this is what it looks like when it’s in your shoulder. (Holds up a model of the pieces set in bone.) So now the ball is in the bone, and the plastic-looking piece is deep inside there, resurfacing the socket. Essentially, you have a new joint, and you shouldn’t have your pain anymore.