Shoulder Arthroscopy SLAP Repair

To understand labral repair surgery, you must first understand how the shoulder works. It’s basically a ball and socket type of joint. The socket is called the glenoid and is very shallow and inherently unstable . The ball is attached by the surrounding soft tissues, tendons and ligaments. The labrum, is a cartilaginous ring around the glenoid that aids in the stability of the shoulder.

If your labrum becomes damaged or dislocated, it can cause pain with certain activities, such as throwing and overhead exercise and even shoulder instability. To fix this problem, we can do address the underlining pathology through a minimally invasive scope procedure.

First, we’ll make small incisions around the shoulder so we can identify and correct the problem. Labral repairs are typically repaired using a suture material to help restore the native anatomy.

Following surgery, patients will undergo a course of physical therapy to help restore motion and strength to the shoulder. Typical recovery is about 4-6 months for complete return to all activities.