How to Wear a Shoulder Sling
A shoulder sling is a valuable tool that provides patients with comfort and protection following surgery. If you’ve never worn one before, you may have some questions about them. Following surgery in our practice, you’ll receive an in-person tutorial from a trained HSS healthcare professional where you can learn the basics of wearing a sling, as well as ask questions. Here, HSS has provided a series of videos that demonstrate the basics of wearing a shoulder sling.
How to Take off your Sling
Most patients undergoing shoulder surgery in our practice will remove their sling beginning the day after surgery to perform some gentle stretching exercises at home. This video demonstrates a safe way to remove a sling.
How to Put on your Sling
While this video demonstrates how a patient can apply a sling independently, we encourage patients to seek out assistance in donning a sling when possible. This can be especially helpful in the first few days after surgery.
How to Put on a Shirt
Loose, button-up shirts (as depicted in the video) are often strategic to minimize the amount of shoulder motion while putting on a shirt, especially in the immediate post-operative period.
How to Take off a Shirt
Patients relying on their non-dominant arm in the postoperative period need not worry. A silver lining for such patients is that their coordination and use of their nondominant arm improves and lasts long after recovering from surgery.
How to Get into Bed
In the immediate postoperative period, many patients find it more comfortable to sleep in a reclining chair or propped more upright on pillows. Gradually, patients return to their normal (and typically improved!) sleeping habits following surgery.
How to Get out of Bed
While it is tempting to remain in bed after surgery, we recommend that patients walk around regularly after shoulder surgery to lower the risk of blood clot formation and constipation postoperatively.