I am 73, and my right rotator was damaged probably 2o-ish yrs. ago. After enduring that discomfort for years, an exploratory surgery revealed that it could not be repaired - atrophy and shrinkage made reattachment of what looked like 2 frayed pieces of nylon rope impossible. I had pretty much gotten used to the soreness and flair-ups whenever I abused it by doing things I shouldn't, but finally decided, after a gazillion Triamcinolone injections over the years, to get it fixed in Oct. 2020.
The doc is one of the best in the eastern region and does only shoulders. He's also the Sports Medicine doc for WVU athletics. Things went swimmingly, and it was wonderful to have no pain. I didn't even have therapy - just some exercises, which I did religiously. My range of motion was good even before the surgery and even better after.
Then, 4 mo. in, things just didn't feel quite right in there. I reached up high one morning and heard a sound like a pencil breaking and felt pain. I went to see doc immediately, only to find that x-ray showed nothing. I knew better, and in a couple days I was back at WVU (a 4 hr. drive) this time for a CT scan. It showed a displaced fracture of the acromion. Bummer! A couple weeks later, I underwent an Open Reduction and Internal Fixation, which is a medical term for basically putting it all back together with screws and a band bridging the break. That was followed by a few weeks in a sling. It wasn't the same as before, but it was decent. I went back for a checkup about a month after that only to find that the band had broken and the end of the acromion had dropped somewhat, not surprisingly. Gravity will do that! This rendered the band and all the screws you see here absolutely non-functional. When I asked about removing them, and the broken band, he said "Don't poke a bear! The surgeon had never seen this happen before - and he has done literally hundreds of both RSRs and conventional shoulder replacements. The really interesting outcome of all this, though, is after the band broke, and even though the bone breakage had not completely healed, the shoulder felt better - not so "bound up".
We have done nothing else except check ups since that time, and you will see the ugly x-ray below.
SO: My advice to all is that if you have osteoporosis really bad don't do this unless the pain becomes absolutely intolerable. If you do not, you will be fine. I've read many clinical studies, and the thing that seems to be constant is that osteoporotic patients have a higher rate of acromion breakage and RSR failure than those who don't. I a not a surgeon, but I have researched this pretty well. Bottom line: I have been on Reclast for a few years now and my bone loss has stabilized, but I don't think I'd do it again knowing what I know now . . .
Don't let me scare you away from it though, but proceed cautiously if you have significant osteoporosis. Be well !!!