Shoulder Arthroplasty Imaging: What’s New

Background Shoulder arthroplasty, in its different forms (hemiarthroplasty, total shoulder arthroplasty and reverse total shoulder arthroplasty) has transformed the clinical outcomes of shoulder disorders. Improvement of general clinical outcome is the result of stronger adequacy of the treatment to the diagnosis, enhanced surgical techniques, specific implanted materials, and more accurate follow up. Imaging is an important tool in each step of these processes. Method This article is a review article declining recent imaging processes for shoulder arthroplasty. Results Shoulder imaging is important for shoulder arthroplasty pre-operative planning but also for post-operative monitoring of the prosthesis and this article has a focus on the validity of plain radiographs for detecting radiolucent line and on new Computed Tomography scan method established to eliminate the prosthesis metallic artefacts that obscure the component fixation visualisation. Conclusion Number of shoulder arthroplasties implanted have grown up rapidly for the past decade, leading to an increase in the number of complications. In parallel, new imaging system have been established to monitor these complications, especially component loosening.