5 Types of Shoulder Surgery Options

By: Ruth Chacon
On: July 19, 2019

The most common shoulder injuries are fractures, contusions, dislocations and separations and sprains, and strains. There are several ways of treating these injuries, with shoulder surgery required for about six percent of these cases. Depending on the injury, your doctor may recommend surgery to improve the condition and help reduce pain.

Here are some five shoulder surgery options:

Debridement

This procedure is usually done on patients who have not had a tear but have a history of chronic shoulder pain that other treatments have not resolved. It is a minimally invasive surgery through which inflamed tissue, bone spurs, scar tissue, and any debris inside the joint that may cause pain is removed.

Labral tear surgery

The labrum is a soft tissue that surrounds and protects the shoulder socket. Repetitive motions and severe shoulder dislocation may tear away the labrum from the bone. Through labral tear surgery, small access points are used to place anchors and have the labrum tied back against the bone.

Shoulder replacement

Arthritis of the shoulder is associated with pain and disability. Although debridement can be used to clean out debris and debride loose flaps of cartilage in the early stages, shoulder replacement may be necessary if this does not work.

Rotator cuff repair

The rotator cuff is composed of tendons and muscles around the shoulder joint. Injuries, repetitive movement, sudden jerking, and wear and tear from aging may cause rotator cuff tears. Rotator cuff repair is a surgery that identifies the damaged part and cleans it before reattaching the torn tendons.

Shoulder surgery for humerus/clavicle fracture repair

The shoulder is made up of three major bones: the upper arm bone, also known as the humerus, the shoulder blade, and the collarbone, also called the clavicle. Mostly, fracturing the clavicle will result from a fall onto the shoulder and fractures to the humerus will occur due to falling on the arm. Depending on the nature and extent of the injury, shoulder surgery may be necessary.