Is My Shoulder Sound?
Author
Dr Naveen Kumar LV
MBBS, MS Orth, FRCS Orth (Eng), MCh Hip & Knee (UK)
MSc Orth (UK), Dip SICOT (Italy), FEBOT (Portugal),
MRCGP (UK), Dip FIFA SM (Switzerland), (FSEM (UK))
Rotator Cuff Tears & Repairs
Shoulder pain and stiffness is a common condition in the age group of 40 and above. Rotator cuff tears are of common prevalence. Shoulder stiffness often gets ignored by people as they are still able to use the remaining range of movements and get on with their daily activities.
What is a Rotator Cuff?
Rotator cuff is a group of 4 small muscles that control and fine tune the shoulder movements. The big shoulder muscles such as deltoid, trapezius, pectoralis manage the mass movement of the shoulder. However, if the small muscles are not working well enough, the lever arm effect and fine tuning of the movements gets affected.
Rotator cuff problems range from muscle tendon irritation and micro injuries due to repetitive friction to partial tears to full thickness tears. In some it can be massive tears with the muscle fibers retracted several centimeters away from the site of their attachment.
When cuff tears have remained for a long time (more than 12 to 18 months), the muscle would lose its flexibility and function. It becomes just a blob of fat and fibrous tissue. Once it reaches this stage, it will not be lending itself for a repair. Hence prompt timely treatment of the rotator cuff tear is necessary.
Treatment
Treatment of rotator cuff tendinopathy (tendon irritation) is by physiotherapy, stretching exercises, posture correction and medications. A partial tear of the rotator cuff can be treated with PRP (platelet rich plasma) injection. For complete tears of the rotator cuff, arthroscopic (key hole) surgery to repair the tendon is necessary to keep the joint mobile and prevent arthritis of the shoulder joint.
Prevention
Appropriate posture especially while sitting and working for long hours is one important factor which helps to keep the shoulder muscles in a good condition. Doing regular stretching exercises for the shoulder to keep muscles flexible is another useful tool to prevent rotator cuff problems.