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Orthopaedic Surgeon Geoffrey Collins, MD, with the Center for Orthopaedics, recently performed the area’s first total shoulder replacement as an outpatient procedure at Imperial Calcasieu Surgical Center. Shoulder replacement, called shoulder arthroplasty, involves replacing the damaged joint surfaces with a highly polished metal ball attached to a stem, and a plastic socket. Improvements in pain management protocols, early mobilization, careful monitoring, and early preventive intervention for the most common medical complications, have helped decrease the average length of a hospital stay for shoulder replacement from a week or more to just one-to-three days. Dr. Collins says that even further advances in minimally invasive techniques, along with improved perioperative anesthesia for pain management, now makes it possible for the procedure to be performed on an outpatient basis for some patients. The potential benefits of outpatient shoulder replacement include fewer complications, including lowering chance of infections, improved outcomes, increased patient satisfaction, and lower costs to the patient. |
