Rotator Cuff Tear

What is a rotator cuff tear?

The rotator cuff in your shoulder joint is a network of muscles and tendons. It wraps around the joint, stabilizing it and enabling you to move (rotate) your arm.

You’re more likely to overstretch or overuse the rotator cuff if your job or a significant hobby requires regular overhead work. Sports where you raise your arms a lot can also result in rotator cuff tears.

Tears may be partial (fractional) or full-thickness (complete). Diagnosing a rotator cuff tear is fairly straightforward for the experienced Advanced Regional Center for Orthopedics & Podiatry team. However, they may need to look at diagnostic images like a CT scan to assess the damage properly.

How are rotator cuff tears treated?

The treatment your Advanced Regional Center for Orthopedics & Podiatry provider recommends for a rotator cuff tear depends on how severe the injury is. Conservative treatments are often very successful for milder injuries and some moderate tears. Your personalized treatment plan could include:

• Activity modification
• Anti-inflammatory pain medication
• Physical therapy
• Strengthening workouts

If these approaches aren’t achieving results, cortisone injections might help. Corticosteroids like cortisone have powerful anti-inflammatory properties with long-lasting effects. They can reduce pain and inflammation, giving the tissues more time to heal naturally with rest and physical therapy.

When conservative treatments are unsuccessful, you might need surgery for your rotator cuff tear. The Advanced Regional Center for Orthopedics & Podiatry team may also recommend surgery earlier if the tear is severe and unlikely to heal.

What does rotator cuff tear surgery involve?

A fractional tear might need debriding, where your surgeon smooths off the torn part of your rotator cuff. A full-thickness rotator cuff tear requires surgery to reattach the tendon to the bone.

The Advanced Regional Center for Orthopedics & Podiatry team specializes in performing rotator cuff repair surgery using arthroscopic techniques. Arthroscopy is a minimally invasive approach where your surgeon creates a tiny incision in your skin, just large enough to insert the flexible, pencil-thickness arthroscope into your shoulder.

The arthroscope’s miniature camera sends back magnified images of your rotator cuff to a monitor in the operating room. Your surgeon uses these images as a guide for the arthroscopic instruments.