UW Shoulder and Elbow Academy: Skydiving after shoulder arthroplasty

Sunday, November 1, 2026

Skydiving after shoulder arthroplasty - less is more.

An active skydiver had major issues with recurrent dislocations - some of which occurred mid-flight and were, therefore, life threatening. Over the years he had multiple procedures to control his dislocations, including Bankart repairs and an iliac crest bone graft to his anterior glenoid. While these controlled his dislocations, he developed progressive arthritis of his shoulder that prevented him from participating in his sport.

He wanted a surgical procedure that would enable him to return to skydiving. He elected a hemiarthroplasty. At surgery, his humeral head was essentially devoid of articular cartilage, however the glenoid was smooth, the iliac crest graft had healed, and there was no evidence of suture anchor prominence. The standard stemmed hemiarthroplasty was secured with impaction autographing. In spite of his numerous prior surgeries, a robust subscapularis repair was achieved.

By 11 months after surgery he was back at skydiving and sent video (he's the person in the white jump suit) - see this link.

Now four years after his hemiarthroplasty he sent an email letting us know that things are going well with his left shoulder. He reported that he is back to skydiving as much as he'd like, and even doing tandem jumps with students again. For the latter, he has been working out the gym pretty hard to increase strength so he can take larger students.

He sent a few skydiving pictures from the last year, including a 3-way with friends, jumping smoke in a local Memorial Day event.

Comment: This case demonstrates the importance of considering not only the shoulder problem, but the person with the shoulder problem. In this case, his desired level of function was achieved with a combination of a relatively straightforward procedure and a terrific rehabilitation effort on the part of the patient.

Safe on the ground