Background Shoulder replacement is a reliable treatment for the relief of pain and improvement of function in patients with glenohumeral arthritis, rotator cuff arthropathy, osteonecrosis and fracture. Limited data is available comparing revision rates for the different types of shoulder replacement when used in younger patients. This study aims to compare the survivorship of hemi resurfacing, stemmed hemiarthroplasty, total shoulder arthroplasty and reverse total shoulder arthroplasty in younger patients using data from a large national arthroplasty registry. Methods Data from the Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry was obtained for the period 16 April 2004–31 December 2018. The study population included all shoulder arthroplasty patients aged <65 years. These were stratified into two groups: <55 years and 55–64 years. A total of 8742 primary shoulder arthroplasty procedures were analysed (1936 procedures in the <55 years and 6806 in the 55–64 years age group). Results In the <55 years age group, there was no difference in revision rate for total shoulder arthroplasty versus reverse total shoulder arthroplasty at any time point. Reverse total shoulder arthroplasty had a lower revision rate after six months when compared to hemi resurfacing (HRA) (p = 0.031). Also, reverse total shoulder arthroplasty had a higher early rate of revision in the first 12 months compared to hemiarthroplasty (p = 0.018). However, from 2 years reverse total shoulder arthroplasty had a lower revision rate overall (p = 0.029). In the 55–64 years patient age group, reverse total shoulder arthroplasty had a lower earlier revision rate. This was statistically significant compared to hemi resurfacing (HRA) (p = 0.028), hemiarthroplasty (p = 0.049) and total shoulder arthroplasty (p < 0.001). Conclusion This study demonstrated that for patients aged <55 years there was no significant difference in the rate of revision when total shoulder arthroplasty and reverse total shoulder arthroplasty were compared. reverse total shoulder arthroplasty had a lower rate of revision when compared to hemi resurfacing and hemiarthroplasty after 2 years. reverse total shoulder arthroplasty had the lowest comparative revision rate in patients aged 55–64 years overall.
