Your shoulder has dislocated more than once, or dislocates easily.
You are under 25 and have had a first traumatic dislocation — the recurrence rate without surgery in this group is very high.
The shoulder feels like it is about to come out when you reach behind you, throw, or sleep with your arm above your head.
You play contact or overhead sport — cricket, kabaddi, rugby, wrestling, volleyball.
You have started avoiding ordinary movements because you no longer trust the shoulder.
It is probably not right if…
A single dislocation in an older patient, where recurrence is much less likely and rehabilitation is usually enough.
Instability that comes from generally loose joints rather than an injury — this responds better to a specific strengthening programme.
The shoulder is currently dislocated or acutely injured; that is treated first.
You are unable to protect the shoulder for the first month.
Why a shoulder keeps coming out
The shoulder is a ball sitting against a shallow, almost flat socket — an arrangement that buys enormous range of movement at the cost of stability. What keeps the ball in place is a rim of tough cartilage around the socket edge called the labrum, together with the ligaments attached to it.
The first dislocation usually tears the labrum off the front of the socket. Once that rim is detached, the ball has a channel to escape through, and it will use it. This is why a shoulder that has dislocated once is far more likely to dislocate again — and why each subsequent episode takes less force than the one before.
The two operations
Arthroscopic Bankart repair
Keyhole surgery to reattach the torn labrum and tighten the stretched ligaments back onto the socket rim, using small anchors. Three openings under a centimetre. This is the right operation when the socket bone is intact — the majority of cases.
Latarjet procedure
For shoulders with significant bone loss from the socket, or where a previous repair has failed. A small piece of bone from the shoulder blade — the coracoid — is moved, with its attached tendon, to the front of the socket and fixed with screws. It deepens the socket and adds a second, dynamic restraint as the tendon tightens across the front of the joint.
Aspect
Bankart repair
Latarjet
Approach
Keyhole, three small portals
Open, one incision at the front
Socket bone loss
None or minimal
Significant, or previous failed repair
What is used
Anchors and sutures
Your own bone block and screws
Sling
3–4 weeks
3–4 weeks
Contact sport
6 months
6 months
Re-dislocation risk
Low in the right patient
Lowest of any option
Best for
First-time or few dislocations, intact bone
Many dislocations, bone loss, collision athletes
The choice is made from a CT scan of how much socket bone remains.
Both are good operations. Choosing between them badly is what produces failures — a keyhole repair in a shoulder that has lost a quarter of its socket will come apart. A CT scan before surgery measures the bone precisely so the decision is made on numbers rather than impression.
The case for operating early if you are young
A first traumatic dislocation in someone under about 25 who plays sport carries a recurrence rate of roughly one in two, and in some groups higher. That is not a small number, and each recurrence adds damage. For a young athlete, stabilising after the first or second dislocation often prevents a decade of an unreliable shoulder and gives a materially better result than repairing a shoulder that has dislocated fifteen times.
Risks
Recurrence of instability, in under 1 in 10 after a well-selected repair and lower after a Latarjet.
Some permanent loss of external rotation — turning the arm outwards. Usually a few degrees and rarely noticed outside throwing sport.
Infection, in well under 1 in 100 cases.
With a Latarjet: hardware problems, failure of the bone block to unite, or occasionally screw removal.
Nerve irritation at the front of the shoulder, usually temporary.
Stiffness, particularly if physiotherapy is delayed.
Later arthritis in a shoulder that has dislocated many times, which surgery limits but cannot reverse.
What recovery actually looks like
Written as a plan, not a promise. Your own timeline will be adjusted to what is found during the operation and how you progress — but this is the shape of it.
Week 0–3
Sling and protection
The sling holds the arm across the body, which keeps the repair unloaded. Gentle pendulum movements and elbow, wrist and hand exercises from the start. The specific movement to avoid is turning the arm outwards.
Sling worn day and night
Pendulum exercises started
Hand and elbow used freely
Back to desk work
Week 3–6
Movement returns
Out of the sling. Range of movement is rebuilt in a controlled sequence, with outward rotation reintroduced last and most cautiously.
Sling discarded
Forward lifting to shoulder height
Driving again from four to six weeks
Rotation reintroduced under guidance
Week 6–12
Strength
Full range of movement is the goal by around three months, alongside genuine strengthening of the rotator cuff and the muscles that control the shoulder blade — which is where lasting stability actually comes from.
Full range of movement
Resistance training started
Shoulder blade control work
Return to physical work
Month 3–6
Back to sport
Non-contact training first, then progressive return to contact. Six months is the standard clearance point for collision sport, and returning early is the main avoidable cause of failure.
Overhead strength restored
Non-contact training
Sport-specific drills
Cleared for contact sport at six months
Patients who had this
Four dislocations in two years. None since.
“By the fourth time, my shoulder was coming out when I turned over in bed. I had been told to strengthen it, and I did, but it kept happening. A CT scan showed I had lost bone from the socket, which is apparently why the simpler operation would not have held.”
Jignesh R., 21 · Kabaddi player
Navsari · 16 months after treatment
Outcome. Latarjet procedure for recurrent dislocation with significant socket bone loss. Out of the sling at four weeks, cleared for contact sport at six months, no further dislocations.
A consultation means your imaging on the screen, a plain explanation of what is actually wrong, and an honest opinion on whether you need surgery — including when the answer is no.