Shoulder replacement is the third most common surgery in the United States, but for some patients, a shoulder replacement isn't the best option.

Now, doctors can relieve pain with a procedure known as reverse shoulder replacement.

"I'm an ICU nurse, retired now, and for 35 years, I was lifting, pulling, tugging patients," Martha Kuhr said.

It just wasn't Kuhr's job that took a toll, the pain stopped her from doing what she loved most, biking.

"The weight on the shoulders, on the handlebars, would become very uncomfortable," Kuhr said.

Midwest Orthaepedics at Rush, Dr. Nikhil Verma, suggested a reverse shoulder replacement.

"I thought he was going to put my arm on backwards, you know, I said, 'great, I can scratch my back now'," Kuhr said.

Kuhr's rotator cuff was not strong enough to support a traditional shoulder replacement, where surgeons replace the socket but still depend on all the surrounding muscle and tendons to support the implant.

"What a reverse shoulder replacement does is, it puts the ball where the socket goes and the socket where the ball goes, and what that does is, it allows the shoulder to become a constrained joint so that the big muscles on the side of your shoulder are now able to substitute for the rotator cuff," Dr. Verma said. 

Recovery is quicker and results better.

"If we had done a traditional replacement, we probably wouldn't have seen the same range of motion recovery and functional recovery that we saw with a reverse replacement," Dr. Verma said.

Now, Kuhr is back on her bike, ready to roll.

Dr. Verma says about 50 percent of all shoulder replacements are now done with reverse implants.