A new study published in JBJS helps to address this question. “Long Term Outcomes of Reverse Total Shoulder Arthroplasty” was published this month by surgeons in France.
They reported that over 90% of reverse shoulder replacements lasted at least ten years. Furthermore, shoulder replacements that did fail and required revision were most likely to occur in the first two years. So if your reverse shoulder replacement makes it past the first two years the odds are good that your replacement will last for a while.
At ten years after surgery the replacements were still doing very well with regards to pain relief and function.
Generally, this study is good news for reverse shoulder replacement patients. This operation has not been around that long (15-20 yrs) so we are still learning about how it will perform over long periods of time. From this study we can the results are good at ten years and the future is bright!
