Shoulder Health and Surgery

Kevin Quigley, MD and orthopedic and sports medicine physician with Signature Orthopedics. Dr. Quigley performs surgeries at both Barnes-Jewish St. Peters Hospital and Progress West Hospital and you can schedule an appointment with the doctor simply by calling 636.928.WELL

How can I keep my shoulders healthy?  

Exercise is probably the best thing that you can do for your shoulders. You don’t have to go to the gym and be a body builder and pump a huge amount of weight to keep yourself strong and keep your joints healthy. I think like you said, push-ups, light weights and even if you don’t use any weight just kind of maintaining mobility in your shoulders and arms is probably the best thing you can do.

Are there non-surgical options for joint pain or are there alternatives to shoulder surgery?

Oh yes, we use all kinds of things to try to help people with pain in their shoulders. The shoulder is a joint that very commonly gets inflamed so we aim to use anti-inflammatory techniques to try to help improve shoulder pain. So sometimes we use an oral anti-inflammatory like ibuprofen or Aleve. There are other stronger prescription medications that you can use as well. Sometimes we use injectables anti-inflammatories like cortisone if the pain gets real bad.  Sometimes physical therapy helps shoulders that get stiff if people develop a frozen shoulder. Sometimes physical therapy can help maintain the mobility of the joints. So those area some of the techniques we try to help shoulder pain without having to go in there and do surgical intervention.

How long is a hospital stay when you actually get to that point?

Generally speaking a lot of shoulder surgeries can be done on an outpatient basis in which you go home that same day. If you have a shoulder arthroscopy for example, that can be done in a couple of hours. A lot of times, people go home that afternoon and recover at home. If you are having a bigger surgery like a shoulder replacement or something along those lines, typically people stay in the hospital overnight. A lot of people go home the following day so hospital stays are not too long for this type of surgery.

How long would it be before a person could drive a car then?

It kind of depends on how invasive the surgery was. If you are talking arthroscopic procedures, with a little physical therapy people can drive in a week and a half to two weeks even. Sometimes sooner than that depending on what was done. If you have more invasive stuff like rotator cuff surgery or if you are having a shoulder replacement sometimes it can be a week or two longer than that. The maximum time before you could drive would be about three weeks or so.

What kind of physical therapy are we talking about with shoulder surgery and shoulder injuries? What types of things are you doing there?

That is probably the most important part of the process actually. The surgery is one thing but the rehabilitation after shoulder surgery is probably even more important. Early on after the surgery, the main focus of the therapy is to work on range of motion to get mobility back in that joint to prevent stiffness and any formation of scar tissue after surgery. Once you get three or four weeks of that then typically they start working more on strengthening exercises and building up the muscles around the shoulder to try to get your strength back. A lot of people lose strength after they have shoulder surgery. So physical therapy is an ongoing process but it’s a step by step process as you are adding stuff as you go.

What are some of the things that we don’t even think about that our shoulders do? 

Washing your hair, brushing your teeth, just simple things like reaching for a glass on a cabinet, these are things that if people have inflammation in their shoulder causes them a lot of pain that don’t normally cause a whole lot of pain.

Is motion is the key?

Yes, it’s not just the shoulder joints, it’s all the joints. Maintaining mobility in all joints is very important. I tell all of my patients that have arthritis that the best way to keep healthy and try to prevent the need for major surgery and joint replacement is to stay as active as you possibly can. Stay as mobile as you possibly can. Maintain range of motion and try to exercise regularly so those joints stay healthy. The opposite happens when you are inactive. The joints lose mobility, they lose strength, the muscles atrophy and the cartilage deteriorates so there is a lot benefit to staying active and staying mobile.