Complication rates following reverse and anatomic shoulder replacement in treatment of glenohumeral arthritis: a 10-year Medicare review study.

Background: We sought to compare the complication rates after anatomic total shoulder arthroplasty (aTSA) and reverse shoulder arthroplasty (RSA) for primary glenohumeral arthritis in a Medicare population.

Methods: Patients who underwent a shoulder arthroplasty were identified from the 5% subset of Medicare parts A/B between 2009 and 2019. Patients with less than 1-year follow-up were excluded. A total of 8846 patients with a diagnosis of glenohumeral arthritis were then subdivided into those who received aTSA (5935 patients) and RSA (2911 patients). A multivariate Cox regression analysis was then performed comparing complication rates at 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, and 5 years.

Results: Statistically significant increased rates of instability (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.46), fracture of the scapula (HR = 7.76), infections (HR = 1.45), early revision (HR = 1.79), and all complications (HR = 1.32) were seen in the RSA group. There was no significant difference in revision rate at 5 years between the 2 groups. There was no difference in patient characteristics or comorbid conditions (smoking status, diabetes, Charlson score, etc.) or hospital characteristics (location, teaching status, public vs. private, etc.) between the 2 groups.

Conclusion: An increased rate of early complications was observed with the use of RSA compared with aTSA for the treatment of primary glenohumeral arthritis, including instability, scapula fracture, infection, and all cause complication. No difference in revision rate between RSA and aTSA at 5 years was observed.