Shoulder Arthroplasty

Shoulder replacement surgery is done for a variety of reasons. One of the most common indications is the reduction of pain in cases of advanced arthritis. In addition to the goal of pain reduction, most surgeons also try to achieve restoration of shoulder function and increase the patient’s quality of life. Increasingly, these activities are being broadened to not only include activities of daily living, such as dressing oneself or being able to participate in household chores, but also to include sporting activities such as golfing, swimming, and dancing. Additionally, given the historically good results of total shoulder arthroplasty (TSA), patients have come to have increasingly higher expectations of their function postoperatively. It is common, both during preoperative and follow-up visits, for patients to ask the surgeon what kinds of sports they will be able to do or allowed to participate in after TSA. Specifically, they wonder whether they will be allowed to participate in the activities they enjoyed prior to developing shoulder problems and at what level they will be able to participate. This clinical review examines how return to sport has been studied and reported on in the shoulder arthroplasty literature.