A History of Shoulder Surgery

S Iqbal,R.J Macfarlane,A Akhtar,U Jacobs,M Waseem

doi:10.2174/1874325001307010305

Abstract

Shoulder surgery has emerged from being a marginalised sub-speciality to being an area of much research and advancement within the last seventy years. This has been despite the complexity of the joint, and success majorly rests on parallel development of biomedical technology. This article looks at the past and present of shoulder surgery and discusses future directions in the speciality.

Highlights

Shoulder surgery has relatively recently been recognized as a separate orthopaedic sub-speciality
In 1944, Mc Laughlin devised a novel method of reattaching the supraspinatus tendon more proximally than at its usual site on the greater tuberosity in cases of rotator cuff tears [26]
The concept of the reverse shoulder prosthesis was introduced in the 1970s, primarily to treat rotator cuff tears

Summary

Introduction

Shoulder surgery has relatively recently been recognized as a separate orthopaedic sub-speciality. By the beginning of the 20th century many different operative techniques were being used to correct instability of the shoulder, with some 150 open and arthroscopic procedures in use for the correction of anterior dislocation alone. In 1934, Ernest Codman described fractures of the proximal humerus, classifying them as occurring in the head, greater or lesser tuberosity, and upper shaft and suggesting that if displacement occurred, operative fixation would be required [19].

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Conclusion