Introduction Shoulder replacement is a classical indication in 3 and 4 part humeral head fractures, but the results reported in literature are not so good like arthritis. This is for some aspects as healing of tuberosity, rotatory cuff repair and difficult in positioning of prosthesis for lack of landmarks. The aim of this study is to assess the overall outcome of 30 patients treated with shoulder prosthesis for proximal humeral fractures.

Methods Quality of life assessment, specific shoulder patients perspective and objective parameters were correlated with position of stem. Height and version of the stem, evaluated with CT scan as reported in Literature, were studied and correlated whether with the other side or with subjective and objective data.

Subjective data included SF-36, DASH, Simple shoulder test; active and passive ROM, muscles strength etc. represented objective data. A rigorous statistical analysis was performed.

Results No statistical significative correlation were detected between position and subjective outcome. Different data are found for objective data as ROM, that appears correlate with position of stem.

Conclusion No papers about these aspects of shoulder replacement exist in Literature.

The authors believe that better knowledge of correlation between outcome and technical aspects in shoulder replacement could be important to define surgical practice criteria.