Can Pyrocarbon Save Shoulder Hemiarthroplasty?

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Hemiarthroplasty of the shoulder has long lived in the awkward middle child zone of shoulder arthroplasty. In theory: elegant, bone-preserving, glenoid-sparing. In practice: “Why does my patient still hurt?”

Metal-on-glenoid contact — particularly cobalt-chromium — has been the usual suspect, blamed for abrasion, erosion, and glenoid-sided pain that turns postoperative optimism into clinic-room disappointment.