Pyrocarbon hemiprostheses show little glenoid erosion and good clinical function at 5.5 years of follow-up.

Background: The success of traditional shoulder hemiarthroplasty (HA) with cobalt-chromium heads is limited by painful glenoid erosion with problematic bone loss. Hemiprostheses with pyrolytic carbon (PyC) heads have shown reduced glenoid erosion in experimental laboratory studies. Few in vivo data are available.