What happens during the operation?

The operation will be performed under a mild general anaesthetic. A local anaesthetic is not possible for shoulder surgery. Any questions remaining will be answered by the anaesthetist when he briefs you about informed consent. The entire procedure normally takes between 90 and 150 minutes.

Once the anaesthetic has taken effect, the patient is moved into the supine position on the operating table. The arm and shoulder to be operated on are then disinfected and covered with sterile drapes.

Now the surgeon performs a gently curved skin incision about 5 cm long at the front of the shoulder. The tissue below is pushed to the side in order to expose the shoulder joint. The surgeon now has a good view of all the parts of the shoulder joint.

Then the surgeon removes the upper part of the damaged humeral head.

The surgeon then prepares the glenoid cavity for placement of the prosthetic cup: he firstly mills out the worn diseased glenoid cavity in order to create space for the prosthetic cup. The latter is then implanted and when doing so the surgeon must ensure that it is correctly aligned. There are a variety of ways to secure the artificial glenoid cup in the bone: it can be securely bonded to the bone using bone cement or be attached with screws.