The effect of the Mathys Affinis Short Stem Total Shoulder Replacement on medium to long term pain and functional outcomes in patients with shoulder arthritis

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Shoulder arthritis can be extremely painful and debilitating and impact on a person's work and life. A solution in appropriate patients is the replace the ball and socket joint of the shoulder and so reduce pain and improve mobility. Historically these replacements have had a long stem in the humerus (long bone of the upper arm) and a new socket in the shoulder where the glenoid bone is. The developments in hip surgery with the replacement of the hip ball and socket, includes a stem which is now much shorter. It is postulated this results in less pain in the femur and may decrease the possibility of mid shaft fracture around the base of the stem. The development in shoulder prostheses has adopted the same concept. Short stem prostheses have been used for several years and this study is not experimental. This study will evaluate whether in this Australian population the short stem ceramic head has greater efficacy than the published studies of the long stem metal head prosthesis in total shoulder replacement. The five year prosthesis outcomes have been submitted for publication and a manuscript on the differences in outcomes between anatomic and reverse prostheses is in final draft. A second analysis will evaluate the efficacy of the Vitamin E enhanced crosslinked polyethylene glenoid component . A study of outcomes in patients 70 and above and below 70 in this cohort is in preparation.. The five year outcomes and the outcomes comparing the Anatomic shoulder replacement and reverse shoulder replacements of younger and older than 75 years have been published.