Page 75 - Best Chapter Spring 2017

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At St. Elizabeth Healthcare, our therapists seek to help individuals recoverfrom disease, physical

injury and surgery, and to assist them in performing everyday activities to the best of their abilities.

there had to be an option that was easier for Even perfectly healthy, strong rotator cuffs must be
surgeons to perform and cause less pain for cut during a standard shoulder replacement surgery,
the patient.” and the process adds challenges for the surgeons and

extended pain and recovery time for patients. And

As an orthopaedic surgeon at Commonwealth while there have been numerous advancements in
Orthopaedic Centers, Dr. Greiwe regularly sees the diagnosis, treatment and equipment associated
patients with shoulder issues. For many patients, with shoulder replacement surgeries, the actual
shoulder replacement is a great solution for method of performing the surgery has been relatively
preserving mobility or repairing injuries. The unchanged since it was introduced to the medical
standard shoulder replacement method practiced field decades ago.

in hospitals across the country typically involves

surgeons accessing the shoulder joint from the front “In the medical community, shoulder issues tend to
of the patient’s body, which requires cutting through lag behind knee and hip advancements because of
the rotator cuff to reach the joint. quality of life,” Dr. Greiwe said. “The best and

closest thing to our latest discovery was a reversed

“When we access a patient’s shoulder from the front shoulder replacement, and that happened more than
of their body, we have to take their rotator cuff 12 years ago.”

down and then we repair it after the joint

replacement is complete,” Dr. Greiwe said. “So the Rather than wait for the medical field to create
traditional shoulder replacement surgery is actually a new solution, Dr. Greiwe decided to explore

two different surgeries combined into one—the procedures on his own. Using cadavers as initial test
shoulder replacement itself and the rotator cuff patients, Dr. Greiwe searched for the least-invasive
repair that is required after we cut through the cuff ’s method of accessing and replacing the shoulder joint.
muscles and tendons.” His research proved worthwhile—Dr. Greiwe >

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