After shoulder stabilization surgery, expect a sling for 3 to 6 weeks, driving from about 6 to 10 weeks, and contact sport at around SIX months.
Both operations stop a shoulder that keeps coming out. A Bankart repair stitches the torn rim of cartilage back onto the front of the socket. A Latarjet moves a small piece of bone onto the front of the socket to rebuild it. Some surgeons let Latarjet patients out of the sling sooner, but the long timeline ends up similar.
For the first six weeks the main rule is the same for both: don’t turn the arm OUTWARD past the limit your surgeon sets. That movement pulls straight on the repair. Your surgeon’s protocol comes first. Where their numbers differ from these, use theirs.
Bankart or Latarjet: what’s the difference?
- Bankart repair: usually keyhole surgery. Small anchors with stitches reattach the labrum (the rim of cartilage around the socket) and tighten the stretched ligaments at the front of the joint. See shoulder labral tear
- Latarjet: usually open surgery through a cut at the front of the shoulder, though some surgeons do it by keyhole. A bony hook at the front of the shoulder blade, the coracoid, is moved onto the front of the socket and fixed with screws. It makes the socket bigger, and the tendons still attached to it act as a sling across the front of the joint
- Why choose a Latarjet: bone has worn or broken off the socket rim, a Bankart repair has already failed, or the risk of it coming out again is especially high, such as in some young contact athletes
- The trade-off: the Latarjet is more reliable. Pooling many studies, about 1 in 7 shoulders slipped or came out again after a Bankart repair, compared with about 1 in 30 after a Latarjet. But it’s a bigger operation with more that can go wrong, including rare nerve injury and problems with the bone block or screws
Week by week
- Weeks 0 to 3: sling on most of the time, including in bed. It comes off for washing, dressing and the gentle exercises your physio gives you, such as shoulder blade squeezes. Sleep is often easiest propped up. See how to sleep after shoulder surgery
- Weeks 3 to 6: after a Latarjet, some surgeons take you out of the sling around now. After a Bankart repair, most keep it on until 4 to 6 weeks. Gentle movement increases, with outward turning kept inside your surgeon’s limit
- Weeks 6 to 12: sling off for everyone. You start using the arm for light everyday tasks below shoulder height. Walking, jogging and an exercise bike are usually fine
- Months 3 to 6: proper strengthening for the rotator cuff and shoulder blade muscles, then sport-specific drills. Throwing programs usually start somewhere in this window
- Around 6 months: contact, collision and overhead sport, once your strength is close to the other side and the shoulder feels secure
The shoulder feels ready weeks before the repair is.
What you can’t do for the first six weeks
- Don’t turn the arm outward beyond the angle your surgeon allows. Think of the movement of opening a door out to the side
- Don’t let the arm drift behind your body. Reaching back for a seatbelt, or pushing a sleeve on backwards, both count
- Don’t take weight through the arm. No pushing up out of a bed or chair with it
- Don’t lift or carry anything heavier than a cup with the operated arm
- Stay out of the “stop sign” position: arm out to the side and turned back, like a throw or a tackle. That’s the position most shoulders come out in
- Don’t stretch hard into outward turning for about three months, even once the sling is off. Let your physio lead
When can I…
- Drive: once you’re out of the sling, off strong painkillers and can control the car in an emergency. Usually 6 to 10 weeks. Check your insurance
- Go back to a desk job: anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks, depending on pain, your commute and how much you can manage one-armed
- Go back to manual or overhead work: 3 months at the earliest, often longer for heavy lifting
- Swim: breaststroke from about 6 weeks, front crawl from about 3 months
- Go to the gym: light work below shoulder height from about 6 to 8 weeks. Bench press, dips and overhead pressing wait until your physio clears you, usually after 3 months
- Play contact sport: on average about 6 months after either operation, sometimes a little earlier after a Latarjet if the bone has healed. More than 9 in 10 athletes get back to their sport, but only about 2 in 3 get back to the same level
Surgery is only part of the job.
The strength program afterwards decides how well the shoulder holds up. For your odds of it happening again without surgery, see will a dislocated shoulder pop out again?
The AAOS guide to shoulder instability explains the options in more detail.
What’s normal
- Losing a little outward turning. It’s common after both operations and rarely matters in daily life
- Numbness around the scar. Small skin nerves are cut. It usually shrinks over months
- A shoulder that feels weak and unfamiliar at 6 weeks. That’s six weeks of rest, not a failed repair
- Nervousness in the old danger position. Confidence often lags behind strength. Graded practice with your physio helps
Call your surgeon today if
- The wound is red, hot, swollen or leaking
- You have a fever or feel unwell
- You feel a clunk, sudden pain and loss of movement, as if the shoulder has come out
- You have new numbness or weakness in the arm, especially after a Latarjet
- Pain keeps getting worse instead of better
Go to the emergency department if
- You have chest pain, sudden breathlessness or cough up blood
- The arm turns cold, pale or blue
Mention it at your next appointment if
- You’re well behind your physio’s movement targets
- The shoulder still feels like it might slip after 3 months
- Clicking or catching doesn’t settle
Six weeks protecting it, three months rebuilding it, and around six months before you trust it in a tackle.