Shoulder Surgery and the Athlete

For many competitive and/or professional athletes, injury is unforeseeable and in some cases, the decision to continue on with their sport comes into question. More specifically, for those athletes who have developed, or even, were born with instable shoulders and have undergone physical therapy, are inevitably plagued with the notion, when therapy fails to work, to either have surgery to fix their shoulder(s) and to continue participating in their sport, or to quit their sport. In this sense, for the athletes who want to carry on in their sport, it appears that an open or arthroscopic Bankart Repair is the most plausible solution in correcting on-going shoulder instability in athletes who have not improved through therapy and want to continue with their sport. In competitive or professional athletes, a stable shoulder is imperative for peak performance, especially for those athletes involved in sports that use persistent overhead motions, such as swimming, or throwing a baseball. In understanding a stable shoulder, the shoulder is a joint that contains three primary bones: the shoulder blade, or scapula, the collarbone, or clavicle, and the upper arm bone, also known as the humerus. In addition, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (2001), dictate that the head of the humerus bone (the humeral head) rests in a shallow socket within the shoulder blade called the glenoid and is held into the socket by the lining of the joint called the capsule. Moreover, the humeral head is quite larger than that of the socket, and a soft fibrous tissue rim, known as the labrum, surrounds the socket, which helps keep the joint stabilized (Shoulder joint tear). Furthermore, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (2001) states the rim in the socket deepens by up to 50 percent, therefore allowing the humeral head to fit better. What’s more is that the rim also serves as an attachment site for several ligaments (Shoulder joint tear). Additionally, the shoulder is

References: Mahaffey, Brian L., and Patrick A. Smith. (1999). Shoulder instability in young athletes Matsen, Frederick A., and Winston J. Warme. (2008). Bankart repair for unstable dislocating shoulders: Surgery to anatomically and securely repair Medicine: Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine. Retrieved March 7, 2009, from https://www.orthop.uwmedicine.org/uw/surgicalrepair/tabID__3367/ItemID__148/PageID__3/Articles/Default.aspx Shoulder Arthroscopy. (2007). Medline Plus: Medical Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 4, 2009, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/007206.htm Shoulder Joint Tear (Glenoid Labrum Tear). (2001). American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Wahl, Christopher, J. and Suzanne L. Slaney. (2005). Arthroscopic shoulder surgery for shoulder dislocation, subluxation, and instability: why, when and how it is done. UW Medicine: Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine. Retrieved March 4, 2009, from