a procedureTotal shoulder replacement

The arthritic or destroyed shoulder joint is replaced with a stemmed or stemless humeral component and a glenoid component. In an anatomic replacement the ball stays on the arm bone; in a reverse, the ball is fixed to the shoulder blade and the socket to the arm, so the deltoid can lift where the rotator cuff cannot. It is done for arthritis, for cuff-deficient arthritis and for some fractures.

Shoulder replacement is the joint operation that travels least well and prices worst. It is done in smaller numbers than hip or knee, the reverse version depends on tendon anatomy a package page cannot assess in advance, and the first six weeks afterwards are a sling and a physiotherapy schedule rather than a walk to the shops.

The price pages show the gap. Bangkok's two largest international hospitals publish arthroscopic shoulder work and no shoulder replacement at all: at Bumrungrad on 16 September 2026 a basic arthroscopic shoulder package is 337,300 baht, a labral repair 345,100 and a rotator cuff repair 371,200, each with two nights — and nothing for a replacement. A patient who wants the joint replaced in Bangkok is asking for a quote, not buying a package.

Where a replacement is priced, the numbers come in the two shapes this subject keeps producing. Practice Plus Group in England lists shoulder replacement at £12,749, one figure covering the stay and the tests. Nordorthopaedics in Kaunas advertises it "from 4.500 € / 3.750 £" with no inclusion list. Australia's Medicare Benefits Schedule sets item 48918, anatomic or reverse total shoulder replacement, at $1,803.15 as at 1 July 2026 — the highest of the joint schedule fees this batch read, and still only the surgeon's fee.

Inference — the schedule fee ranking is worth reading beside the package ranking. Australia's payer prices the shoulder above the hip and the knee; the Bangkok package market prices the shoulder at nothing, because it does not sell one.

General anaesthesia, usually with an interscalene nerve block. The surgeon opens the front of the shoulder between deltoid and pectoralis, cuts the humeral head, prepares the glenoid, seats the components, tests the tension and closes. The arm goes into a sling. Australia's item 48918 includes, in its own wording, associated rotator cuff repair, biceps tenodesis and tuberosity osteotomy if performed — three separate operations folded into one fee, which is what a bundled item number does.

As of 16 September 2026 the published shoulder prices on this site are an English self-pay figure of £12,749, a Lithuanian advertised floor of 4,500 euro, and an Australian schedule fee of $1,803.15. No hospital read for this batch publishes a shoulder replacement package price in Asia, and the largest Bangkok price pages carry arthroscopy instead.

This page describes an operation and the prices published for it, and says nothing about whether any reader should have one.