[Possibilities of shoulder prostheses in arthritis]

The most dramatic progress in shoulder surgery in the last 50 years has been the introduction of replacement arthroplasty for the treatment of posttraumatic, inflammatory and degenerative arthropathies. In rheumatoid arthritis shoulder replacement arthroplasty provides good and excellent subjective and objective middle- and long-term results in more than 80% of the patients. Above, all pain relief is reliable. The state of the rotator cuff and deltoid muscle at the time of operation determine the gain in function. Despite the high incidence of radiolucent lines about the prosthetic components, clinical loosening is rare. Actually the survival rate of shoulder prostheses is comparable to that of total hip and total knee prostheses.