Our Specialties Include
- Arthritis
- Arthroscopic Surgery
- Deformity & Disability
- Joint Replacement
- Minimally Invasive Knee Surgery Including Arthroscopic Repairs of the ACL & Restorative Cartilage Surgery
- Small Incision Knee Replacement Including the Oxford™ Knee
- Minimally Invasive Shoulder Surgery Including Arthroscopic Repairs for Rotator Cuff Tears, Cartilage, & Ligament Tears
- Sports Medicine
- Total Shoulder Replacement
- Reversed Total Shoulder Replacement
- Trauma & Fractures
Medical Legal Services
You can now request medical legal services online, such as IME, IRE, Deposition, Record Review, etc.
What's New
Tucker Orthopedics offers patients Reversed Total Shoulder Replacement, a technologically and surgically advanced procedure, which gives patients the ability to regain a significant amount of mobility and function of their affected arm.
Read More About
Reversed Total Shoulder
Replacement »
Tucker Orthopedics is pleased to offer the ACP procedure to our patients as an alternative to surgery and endeavors to keep the cost very reasonable especially when compared to the cost, risk, and morbidity associated with surgery.
Read More About
Autologous Conditioned Plasma (ACP) Injections »
Partial knee replacement with the OxfordTM Knee affords qualified patients at Tucker Orthopedics with a procedure that works just as well as a total knee replacement with several important advantages.
Reversed Total Shoulder Replacement
Tucker Orthopedics offers patients who are candidates for this technologically and surgically advanced procedure the ability to regain a significant amount of mobility and function of their affected arm. The reversed total shoulder replacement is a procedure that is for selected patients who are:
- Generally over the age of 70
- Suffering from advanced rotator cuff disease that is not amenable to reconstruction or have failed prior reconstruction
- Certain older patients with severe fractures of the shoulder
- Patients who have failed prior traditional total shoulder replacements
- Those who are medically appropriate candidates for this reconstructive procedure
The reversed total shoulder has been in use in Europe since the late 1980’s but was only approved for use in the USA since 2004. Early devices approved for use in this country had unacceptably high complication rates, as high as 50%. Therefore, Tucker Orthopedics opted to wait until better designed devices became available.
Fortunately, beginning in 2007, better devices were introduced and the complication rate of this surgery declined substantially to the point where Tucker Orthopedics was able to ethically offer this surgery to qualified patients. Our deep experience with shoulder reconstructive surgery spanning over twenty years allowed us to make the right decision at the right time and avoid the problems with the earlier devices introduced in 2004.
Since 2007, we have performed dozens of these surgeries with a very low rate of complications and an extremely high rate of patient satisfaction. Patients nearly universally remark that their pain is gone and they can once again move their arm, place their hand where they want it to go, and perform most of their activities of dailiy living once again. Driving, hygiene, household chores, and so on are within their capabilities once again, and sleepless nights from shoulder pain are just a memory.
Generally, recovery and rehabilitation from a reversed total shoulder is much easier and quicker than recovery from a traditional total shoulder replacement. There is on average a one or two day hospital stay followed by sling use for several weeks, and a course of outpatient physical therapy for six to eight weeks. This is about half the time required for traditional total shoulder replacement.
Instability or dislocation of the implant is the most common complication, with a reported rate of 10 to 15% in the literature, although our experience is lower, in the 5% range. Infection of the implant is reported at 5%, although our experience to date has been zero infections since our inception with the procedure. There is also a risk of fracture of the bones of the shoulder surrounding the device, although most fractures of this nature occur after trauma, such as a fall. We have treated one such case to date, with successful healing using an arm brace with no additional surgery required. Other potential complications can occur, but at a lower frequency than the three discussed here.
The overall complication rate of this operation is roughly 10%, with most complications managed successfully and a good clinical outcome achieved.
If you are technologically inclined, I invite you to explore the links below for additional in-depth information.
Dr. Tucker
Learn more about the Comprehensive® Reverse Shoulder System »
Read the article, "Reverse Shoulder Replacement, Soaring Popularity" »
Last Modified: April 12, 2010