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Arthroscopic surgery can arguably be called one of the major contributions to orthopedic medicine in the past century. It allows surgeons to avoid an invasive, open procedure and instead make a relatively small incision just big enough for a tiny camera. It’s a revolutionary innovation that lets doctors diagnose and treat soft tissue damage in your joints.
Our team of experienced orthopedic surgeons at The Woodlands Sports Medicine Centre are experts when it comes to arthroscopy. We’ve refined and mastered the procedure so we can offer our patients the least invasive, most effective surgery available. And if you have chronic shoulder pain, this is good news, because arthroscopic surgery is ideal for the shoulder joint.
If you were in a car accident or tackled in a football game, you likely know exactly why your shoulder hurts. But if you're like many people, you may have unexplained pain. It’s not such a mystery if you think about everything you ask your shoulder to do — reach, lift, twist, and throw. One wrong move can wreak havoc on the moving parts in your complicated shoulder joint.
Your shoulder is pretty resilient, but if you overdo it, you could end up with:
Not all of these conditions call for surgery, but if yours does, arthroscopic surgery can offer you multiple benefits.
The first thing we do when you come to us with shoulder pain is investigate to find the source. We use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), X-rays, and CT scans to get a picture of what’s going on inside your shoulder, but nothing beats an inside look.
That’s the first way arthroscopic technology comes into play. It allows us to insert a tiny, powerful camera into your shoulder joint so we can see exactly where the tissue damage is, how extensive it is, and what needs to be done next.
Often, what we discover in this investigative step is something we can treat at the same time. Leaving the camera in place to guide us, we make another tiny incision for a tool to perform the surgery. With this amazing minimally invasive approach to surgery, we can fix tears, remove bone spurs, and repair cartilage and ligaments.
That’s it — two precise and effective procedures, one surgical session, and no collateral damage to the surrounding tissues.
Clearly, arthroscopy offers a more streamlined approach to shoulder surgery than traditional open surgery, but the small incision size isn’t the only advantage. Arthroscopic shoulder surgery also means:
If you’re an athlete, that means you can start on rehab right away and get back in the game sooner. But you don’t have to be an athlete to reap the benefits of arthroscopic shoulder surgery. To find out if you’re a good candidate for this amazing procedure, call us at 281-374-2273, or book an appointment online.
