Sports
Participate in Sports after Shoulder Replacement Surgery
By
Aug 11, 2008 - 7:33:08 PM

Majority of patients improved in their ability to play their sport; Findings important to active Baby Boomer Generation



(HealthNewsDigest.com) - AURORA, Colo. – In recent years, there has been a surge in the number of active, older adults. This is due in part to the aging Baby Boomer Generation—those born between 1946 and the early 1960s—who recently began catapulting past age 60, remaining just as active as they had been in their 50s. The result is an older population that not only remains active but remains active in sports.

A new study led by researchers at the University of Colorado Denver and published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine surveyed 145 men and women with a mean age of 65.5 years who had had shoulder replacement surgery and found that 64 percent of those surveyed had the surgery so they could continue to participate in at least one sport—and of that group (48 patients), 71 percent demonstrated an improvement in their ability to play their sport while 50 percent increased their participation rate following surgery. Swimming, tennis and golf were the most popular sports and participants in these sports showed the most favorable improvement.

“A large percentage of the patients included in this study placed a really high value on their motion and the ability to return to playing sports as reasons for having shoulder replacement surgery,” said Eric C. McCarty, MD, associate professor and chief of Sports Medicine and Shoulder Surgery at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, and principal investigator of the study. “This tells us a lot about their motivation and the importance of athletics to them.”

The mean time to return to sports following surgery was 3.6 months, and full participation occurred at 5.8 months postoperatively.

“The goal with any joint replacement is to relieve pain and restore mobility to a joint,” added McCarty. “What this study found was that patients are able to successfully return to sports after shoulder surgery and many returned with improved performance which included playing sports more frequently—within six months of surgery.”

The majority of studies up to this point have focused on sports participation following hip or knee replacement. There was only one other published study to look at sports participation following shoulder replacement surgery and it involved 24 patients, 96 percent of which returned to playing golf specifically, and improved their game.

The authors note the purpose of this study was to not only determine the rate and time it took for this patient population to return to sports but to also establish the types of sports to which patients are able to return. A high rate of return to sports and recreational athletic activities occurred in the most popular pre-shoulder replacement sports: 86 percent returned to swimming, 77 percent returned to golf, and 75 percent returned to tennis. A lower rate of return was seen in higher impact sports like weight lifting, bowling and softball, all of which can put excessive stress on the shoulder.

The patients involved in this study were followed over an average of 3.7 years and only four procedures were documented/occurred after the initial shoulder replacement; three involved removing non-living tissue around the implant and one involved removal of the glenoid component—the plastic socket portion of the shoulder replacement. The authors note that further work is needed to determine the stress that sports participation places on the components involved in a shoulder replacement but the information from this study may be helpful to active patients who inquire about a return to sports after a shoulder replacement.

The study, “Sports Participation after Shoulder Replacement Surgery,” is available online.

http://www.uchsc.edu/

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