shoulder-injuries
Shoulder problems affect people of all ages. These can be due to sudden injury or simple overuse and repetitive activity. Arthritis can be another common cause of shoulder pain and dysfunction.
Sports involving repetitive overhead motions like tennis, volleyball, baseball, Olympic lifting, HIIT training, and swimming can make you more prone to shoulder injuries. As patients age into their 50’s and 60’s, it is common to develop symptoms related to the rotator cuff tendons or arthritis.
Our fellowship-trained surgeons and mid-level providers offer comprehensive detailed evaluations and a wide variety of treatment strategies. As board-certified, fellowship-trained specialists who actively participate in national and international academic sports medicine and shoulder societies, we offer the highest levels of evidence-based medicine and state-of-the-art techniques to optimize your care.
Shoulder Evaluation
A hands-on evaluation of your shoulder will help assist in determining the cause of your shoulder problems. Appropriate evaluation typically includes:
- A history of your injury or pain
- Focused physical examination
- X-rays when needed
- Appropriate advanced imaging studies, (e.g. MRI or CT scan) if necessary
- Selective injections can be used to determine where your pain originates
Treatment
The causes of your shoulder injury or condition, as well as your level of activity, will lead your doctor to develop a personalized treatment plan with you. In most cases, non-surgical treatment methods are preferred. But in certain cases, you may have poor outcomes if surgical intervention is delayed. Helping you through this decision-making process is one of the most important parts of our jobs as surgeons.
We direct treatment alternatives based on your problem. Conservative options range from methods activity modification to physical therapy, regenerative medicine techniques, and injections. Surgical interventions are also considered, including advanced arthroscopic techniques and the latest in orthobiologics or even bone-marrow-derived stem cells.
Arthroscopic and Minimally Invasive Surgery
Our orthopedic specialists are trained in the most up-to-date, minimally invasive techniques. We have the training and skills needed to repair nearly any shoulder problem with arthroscopic methods. In fact, minimally invasive arthroscopic techniques are our standard practice for nearly every shoulder surgery besides fracture care or replacements.
Arthroscopic repair can be performed for all of the following conditions and more:
- Rotator Cuff Repair
- SLAP Repair
- Labrum Repair
- Instability Repair
- HAGL Repair
Rotator Cuff Tears
Rotator cuff tears are very common problems. But the treatment can vary greatly depending on the patient’s age, activity level, and severity of the tear. Partial tears can often be treated without surgery, but new techniques like arthroscopic RegentenTM application can use bioinductive healing to repair your partial tear with only two days of sling use.
Typical tears of the rotator cuff are treated with an arthroscopic repair, using sutures and anchors to re-attach the cuff to the bone. But some tears can be too large or old to repair. In these situations, we sometimes need to reconstruct the missing cuff tendon with a patch in a process known as a superior capsular reconstruction.
Shoulder Replacement
The corona virus pandemic heled us to accelerate the trend toward outpatient joint replacement. And that includes shoulders. Advances in shoulder replacement surgery allow us to get many people home the same day as their surgery. This is often actually safer, with lower rates of infection and other complications when people are able to stay out of the hospital.
People who have both arthritis and a rotator cuff tear require a special type of surgery called a reverse total shoulder replacement. And even this can be performed as same-day surgery now!
Specialists
Total and Reverse Shoulder Replacement
Dr. James Larson
Dr. Steven Pancio
Fellowship-Trained Shoulder Specialists
Dr. James Larson
Dr. Steven Pancio
Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repair
Dr. James Larson
Dr. Steven Pancio
Dr. Thomas Courtney
Dr. Richard Patterson
Services Provided
Regeneten TM Bioinductive Implant
Frozen Shoulder Treatment
Rotator Cuff Repair
FlowerAmnioFlow TM
PRP Injections
SLAP/Labrum Repair
Shoulder Replacement
Reverse Total Shoulder Replacement
Superior Capsular Reconstruction
SignatureTM Shoulder Replacement
Shoulder Dislocations
AC Separation
Shoulder Fractures
Impingement Syndrome
