A relatively new technique is a reverse shoulder replacement which was designed for individuals who are not candidates for a total shoulder replacement because of two underlying conditions—rotator cuff injuries and advanced arthritis and osteoarthritis. This revolutionary type of joint replacement changes the geometry of the shoulder joint such that the ball (upper end of humerus) becomes the socket through a new, specially engineered, implant called the glenosphere. This type of replacement is generally reserved for patients over 70 or who have no other reasonable options to reconstruct the shoulder. The name “reverse shoulder replacement” was given to this procedure because it is the reverse of the body’s normal anatomy.
