Preparing for a Bankart repair, or a Latarjet, comes down to four things: set up your home for about 4 to 6 weeks with one working arm, practice the sling and one-handed tasks before the day, keep the rest of your body fit, and arrange help with driving for around 6 to 8 weeks. Write down your questions for your surgeon, because the answers shape your first months.
Your surgeon’s protocol comes first. The ranges here are typical, and your surgeon may give you different timings. Use theirs.
Key takeaways
- Sling time: usually 3 to 6 weeks after shoulder stabilization surgery.
- Protected movement: turning the arm outward is usually limited for the first weeks.
- Driving: often not possible for about 6 to 8 weeks.
- Practice first: one-handed dressing and sling handling are easier to learn before surgery than after.
- Nerve block: the arm is often numb for some hours after surgery, and pain medicine is usually started before it wears off.
What the operation does
Shoulder stabilization surgery aims to stop the ball of the shoulder slipping out of the socket again after one or more dislocations.
- Bankart repair: the torn rim of cartilage around the socket (labrum) and the joint lining are stitched back to the front of the socket, using small anchors in the bone. It is usually done by keyhole surgery (arthroscopy).
- Latarjet: a small piece of bone from the front of the shoulder blade, with a tendon still attached, is moved and fixed to the front of the socket with screws. It is often chosen when bone has been worn away from the socket, or when an earlier repair has not held.
Either way, the repair needs time to heal before it can take load. The early rules on movement exist to protect it.
What to set up at home before
- Clothing: loose button-front or zip-up tops one size up, elastic-waist pants, slip-on shoes, and front-fastening bras or sports bras you can step into.
- Sleeping position: many people sleep better propped up on several pillows or in a reclining chair for the first few weeks. Set this up and try it a night or two before surgery.
- Kitchen: move everyday plates, cups and food to between waist and chest height. Prepare a week of easy meals. Have containers you can open one-handed.
- Bathroom: a pump bottle for soap and shampoo, a long-handled sponge, and a waterproof cover for the dressing if your surgeon allows showering.
- Help with driving: arrange rides for about 6 to 8 weeks, including to physical therapy appointments, which often start within the first few weeks.
- Study, work and sport: tell your coach, school or employer the likely timeline. Contact sport is often 6 to 9 months away.
What to practice before
- Sling on and off: if you can get the sling before surgery, learn to put it on and take it off with one hand while the operated arm hangs relaxed.
- One-handed tasks: spend an hour or two dressing, washing, eating and using your phone and keyboard with the other hand.
- Getting out of bed: practice rolling onto the non-operated side and pushing up with that arm.
- Gentle movements your surgeon allows: often elbow bending and straightening, wrist and hand movement, and gently drawing the shoulder blades back. Learning them now makes the first week easier.
- General fitness: keep up leg strength and walking or cycling. It helps your mood and your return to sport later.
Every one-handed skill you learn before surgery is one less thing to work out in pain.
Questions to ask your surgeon
- Operation: am I having a Bankart repair, a Latarjet or something else, and why that one for me?
- Sling: how long will I wear it, and can I take it off to shower, dress or sleep?
- Limits: which movements must I avoid, especially turning the arm outward, and for how long?
- Physical therapy: when does it start, and will you send a protocol to my physical therapist?
- Pain: will I have a nerve block, and what medicine should I take and when?
- Return: what tests will decide when I can drive, work and return to my sport?
The first 48 hours
Many people have a nerve block in the neck that numbs the arm for several hours, sometimes into the next day. While it lasts, the arm feels heavy and you may not feel it at all, so keep it in the sling and away from heat. Start your pain medicine as your team advises, before the block wears off, because the shoulder can become sore quickly once feeling returns.
Most people go home the same day or the next. Expect to sleep propped up, to need help dressing, and to feel tired. Ice packs wrapped in a cloth, used for short periods if your team allows, help many people with pain and swelling. Keep moving the elbow, wrist and hand as shown.
Call your surgeon or emergency number if
- Breathing: you have sudden breathlessness or chest pain. Call your local emergency number.
- Hand color: the hand turns cold, pale or blue. Call your local emergency number.
- Numbness that stays: the arm is still fully numb or weak well beyond the time you were told the block would last. Call your surgeon.
- Wound or fever: redness spreading from the wound, discharge, a temperature of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher, or chills. Call your surgeon.
- Calf: one calf becomes swollen, warm or painful. Call your surgeon the same day.
- Pain: pain is not controlled by the medicine you were given. Call your surgeon.
More on this area: surgery recovery guides.
The work you do in the weeks before surgery makes the first weeks after it simpler.
Written by Louise Yow, Neck & Shoulder Physio.