Swimmers in general know all about shoulder aches and pains, but one aquatic athlete in particular can especially relate. Dr. Mike Greiwe, a United States Masters swimmer on the Northern Kentucky Swordfish Masters squad in Erlanger, Kentucky, is an orthopedic surgeon specializing in shoulder joints. He meets daily with patients suffering from severe pain and stiffness in their shoulders due to arthritis, with many of them needing total shoulder replacement surgery.
However, Dr. Greiwe has developed the first-ever shoulder replacement surgery method that manages to preserve the patent’s own rotator cuff, the muscles and tendons located in the front of the shoulder. In maintaining the integrity of the patient’s cuff, Dr. Greiwe’s method uses specially designed instruments to separate the muscles and tendons to access the damaged ball and socket joint, as opposed to the traditional surgery approach of cutting and pulling away the rotator cuff. As such, a long and painful rehabilitation method that typically spans months is reduced to weeks.
“We’ve been working very hard to develop a shoulder replacement technique that reduces pain and speeds up healing,” says Dr. Greiwe. “This will be a significant game changer for patients and their surgeons.”
“Our new method of replacing the shoulder joint by going in from the back, rather than the front, helps people immensely from a pain standpoint,” says Dr. Greiwe. “We eliminate potential complications, because we don’t cut the rotator cuff muscles.”
Overall, patients undergoing the new, groundbreaking surgery report reduced time on pain medication and shorter physical therapy and rehabilitation. Total recovery time is reported to be about 3 months as opposed to 6 to 9 months with regular surgery.
You can read more about this Masters swimmer’s innovation here.
This is a wonderful development on many fronts. This kind of surgery dates at least in part back to 1965, when Notre Dame’s center, George Goedekke, had an emergency ins-season appendectomy. Instead of cutting through muscle,the surgeons separated them. Needless to say, he then played shortly thereafter in what was a most notable event in Northern Indiana at the time. Some time thereafter, heart surgeons began to lift the rib cage rather than breaking the sternum, which led other surgeons o rethink destruction of adjoining skeletal & connective tissues in favor of less violent methods. Nowadays of course we have even greater technological marvels that dramatically shorten recovery time even further. Kudos to Dr. Greiwe for taking this to another… Read more »
Unrelated comment, but the shoulder mobility displayed in the thumbnail and cover photo is nothing short of incredible
I agree, that is some of the best mobility I have ever seen in a swimmer
Is that Anthony Ervin? Looks like his head of hair and physique.
It’s actually Brazil’s Thiago Pereira! 🙂
Pre or post Lochtegate?
Ive had tendonitis in both shoulders for 18 months now, went to months of therapy and completely changed my diet as well and still didnt help and swimming was very painful. They are better than ever now but they still hurt and i think it got better due to the fact i stopped swimming the stroke that hurt me freestyle and switched to all IM no free training for about 7 months, but i dont know whether to go back to free or not, just curious what are the results from any patients?
Based on my personal experience, I’m convinced that most shoulder pain swimmers experience is misdiagnosed. Unless there’s an acute injury or the presence of arthritis, the location of the pain is often not even the location of the problem. I suffer from chronic pain in my anyerior deltoid, where most swimmers with shoulder pain hurt. Sometimes it’s excruciating to raise my arm to brush my teeth. It’s difficult not to focus my attention on the location of the pain, but the problem is upstream of the symptoms, especially in the lat. Tension and adhesions in the activating muscles transmit tension to the shoulder, elbow and wrist, where the pain manifests. Myofacial release therapy provides dramatic improvement and pain relief, but… Read more »