A sixty year old active man presented with incapacitating pain and weakness of his right shoulder after two prior rotator cuff repair attempts. He was unable to sleep comfortably because of shoulder pain. On examination he had painful, crepitant active elevation above 90 degrees.
His MRI showed supraspinatus tendon retraction to the level of the glenoid and a chronic subscapularis tear.
Immediately after surgery he started active and passive range of motion exercises.
At nine months after surgery he came by for a followup, reporting that he was sleeping comfortably and demonstrated the active motion shown in the images shown below with his permission.
Comment: There are many reported approaches to irreparable supraspinatus and subscapularis cuff tears, including a subacromial balloon, a superior capsular reconstruction, a biologic graft, tendon transfers, partial repairs and reverse total shoulder (see this article by our current shoulder fellow, Mihir Sheth link). The smooth and move procedure provides a safe, inexpensive, minimally invasive procedure with minimal postoperative downtime that can be effective in shoulders without pseudo paralysis and without significant arthritis (see this link and this link).
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Here are some videos that are of shoulder interest
Shoulder arthritis - what you need to know (see this link).
How to x-ray the shoulder (see this link).
The ream and run procedure (see this link).
The total shoulder arthroplasty (see this link).
The cuff tear arthropathy arthroplasty (see this link).
The reverse total shoulder arthroplasty (see this link).
The smooth and move procedure for irreparable rotator cuff tears (see this link).
Shoulder rehabilitation exercises (see this link).
