EAST PROVIDENCE, RI — University Orthopedics, one of the region’s largest, most comprehensive orthopedic practices, is excited to announce E. Scott Paxton, MD, is now the only orthopedic surgeon in Rhode Island to have performed a partial shoulder replacement utilizing Stryker’s Tornier Pyrocarbon Humeral Head. The recently FDA-cleared implant enables younger patients to return to their active lifestyle without the limitations sometimes associated with other procedures, like a total shoulder replacement.
Dr. Paxton performed Rhode Island’s first humeral head resurfacing using Stryker’s Tornier Pyrocarbon Humeral Head at University Orthopedics’ East Bay Surgical Center in April 2024. He has performed many more to date, all of which have yielded excellent outcomes thus far.
“Joint replacement surgery for younger patients with severe shoulder arthritis has historically been challenging, with a high failure risk due to socket (glenoid) component loosening. The pyrocarbon implant is softer than metal and behaves more like bone–eliminating the need to resurface the socket side of the joint,” Dr. Paxton said. “Without that risk of the socket component loosening over time, I feel comfortable allowing patients with this implant to return to activities I previously would have advised against.”
Pyrocarbon is an advanced, biocompatible bearing material that has been utilized internationally for a variety of orthopedic procedures since the early 1990s and in shoulder cases since 2013. Stryker’s Tornier Pyrocarbon Humeral Head is the only pyrocarbon implant cleared for shoulder hemiarthroplasty in the United States, receiving FDA approval at the end of 2022.
About E. Scott Paxton, MD
E. Scott Paxton, MD is a member of the Division of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery and an Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. He completed fellowship training in the treatment of problems of the shoulder and elbow at the renowned Rothman Institute in Philadelphia where he trained with many of the world’s leaders in shoulder and elbow surgery.
The typical problems that he evaluates and treats include rotator cuff tears and impingement, shoulder and elbow instability and dislocations, shoulder and elbow arthritis, shoulder fractures (humerus, glenoid, scapula, and clavicle), elbow fractures, malunions and nonunions of these fractures, tendon injuries of the shoulder and elbow, labral tears, throwing injuries and other sports injuries of the upper extremity.