We all use our shoulders every day, whether to carry groceries, washing, playing baseball or tennis, or lifting a child. Our shoulder joints are so important to us that we even use them for all our daily activities. When all of our shoulders do all the work for us, injuries to the shoulder can affect our daily lives. Therefore, everyone must know something about the care and prevention of rotator cuff injuries so that we can continue to do what we like in life. Dr Chandrasekhar Shoulder surgeon provided this article that will help give the information about the treatment and prevention of rotator cuff injuries and keep your shoulder healthy.

What Is A Rotator Cuff Injury?

The rotator cuff consists of four muscles and tendons that help stabilize the shoulder. They also help the movement. Every time you move your shoulder, use the rotator cuff to support and move the joint. The rotator cuff is often a damaged area. The most common injuries are strains, tendonitis and bursitis.

This friction is known as obstruction syndrome and causes inflammation of the rotator cuff. Rotator cuff friction is most likely to cause inflammation if your arm movements are rough or repetitive. Inflammation can cause three problems:

• Tendonitis of Rotator Cuff: Tendonitis causes pain only with specific movements use of the muscles pulled against the tendon or when you reach upwards
• Bursitis in shoulder Also called subacromial bursitis: Bursitis occurs when inflammation spreads in a fluid bag that lubricates the rotator cuff tendon. The pain is often worse at night and happens when you move your shoulder in almost all directions, especially when you reach up.
• Rotator cuff tear: Tendons can tear after being weakened by inflammation.

Excessive stress or acute injury causes rotator cuff fractures. The tendon that connects the muscles to the bone may be wholly or partly distended (tense) or torn. The rotator cuff can be torn even after a fall, a car accident or other sudden injury. This injury usually causes severe and immediate pain. For more information about the causes and symptoms of rotator cuff injury go through.

So you already know about what is rotator cuff injury, causes and symptoms, so let’s know deeply about the diagnosis, treatment, prevention of rotator cuff injury.

Diagnosis

During a physical examination, the doctor presses on different parts of the shoulder and moves the arm to a different position. He will also test the strength of the muscles around your shoulders and arms. In some cases, a doctor can recommend imaging tests, such as:

• X-rays: Even though rotator cuff injury not seen in X-ray, this test can show bone spurs or other potential causes of your pain, such as arthritis
• Ultrasound: This type of test uses sound waves to create pictures of structures in your body, exceptionally soft tissues such as muscles and tendons. It allows for dynamic testing and evaluation of a shoulder structure as you move. It also enables a quick comparison between the affected arm and the strong arm.
• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): This technology uses radio waves and strong magnets. The resulting image shows all arm structures in great detail. Image quality is very dependent on the quality of the device used.

Treatment:
Conservative treatments: Such as rest, ice and physiotherapy are sometimes only needed to recover from rotator cuff injuries. If your damage is severe and involves complete muscle or tendon rupture, surgery may be required.

Injections: If your pain has not subsided with conservative care, your doctor may recommend injecting steroids into your shoulder joints, especially if the pain interferes with your sleep, daily activities, or exercise. Although such injections are often of temporary use, they must be used wisely because they can contribute to a weakening of the tendon.

General Treatment options can:

• Change in Activities: It’s essential to learn to use arms more safely and comfortably.
• Physical therapy: This can help increase mobility and strengthen shoulder muscles.
• Anti-inflammatory medications: These drugs are used to relieve pain and relieve inflammation.

If this treatment is not successful, surgery such as arthroscopy is a reasonable choice. For large tear, surgery may be needed to replace the joint.

Surgery

Arthroscopic rotator cuff repair: There are many types of surgical procedures available for rotator cuff injuries, including Arthroscopic tendon restoration: In this procedure, the surgeon inserts a small chamber (Arthroscope) and a device through a small incision to reattach the torn tendon to the bone.

How Surgery Treat Rotator Cuff Injury using Arthroscope:

Surgery of rotator cuff injury depends on the extent of the problem and the health and lifestyle of the patient. Rotator cuff injuries get usually repaired with arthroscopic surgical techniques. During arthroscopic surgery, the doctor inserts a small optical camera through a small incision into the joint, and the surgeon can see and operate the image on a television screen. Small devices measuring 3 to 5 mm are inserted through additional incisions so that the joint structure can be examined and diagnosed, and the injured tissue can be repaired or removed.

In cases with weak tendonitis or small rotator cuffs, the entire procedure performs with an arthroscope. The bottom of the Acromion, part of the shoulder blade, is shaved down so as not to pinch the rotator cuff.

In cases of the entire thickness of the rotator cuff is broken, and the muscle or tendon is ruptured, the injury is usually wholly healed with an arthroscope. The doctor prepared bones for attachment to the ligament, and wave the stitches through the muscle. A doctor will sew the tendon back to the anchor attached to the bone. The anchor does not need to remove.

Sometimes, if the tear is severe or prolonged, surgery must be performed with an open incision — an incision made in the rotator cuff area on the shoulder side.

• Open Tendon Repair: Fixing tendon with open surgery might be a better choice in some situations. In this type of surgery, your surgeon will make a larger incision to secure the damaged tendon to the bone. Compared with arthroscopic surgery, repair of an open surgery tendon usually heals for the same duration, but recovery can be more complicated.
• Transmission of tendons: If the torn ligament is too damaged to attach to the arm bone, the surgeon can use the closest muscle as a replacement.
• Shoulder replacement. Massive rotator injuries may require surgery to replace the arm. The artificial ball joint on the scapula and the acetabulum portion of the arm bone attaches with an innovative technique (reversing arthroplasty on the shoulder) o increase the stability of the artificial joint.

Rehabilitation:

Post-operative care depends on the choice of surgery, but therapy is an essential component of recovery. Treatment can take three to twelve months. Coordinated efforts need in between patients, surgeons and physiotherapists or occupational therapists. For more information about post-operative care and recovery go through.
Prevention:

The good news is that the shoulder problem can overcome without surgery. However, it is best to avoid issues first. Here are a few ways to prevent rotator cuff injury.

• Listen To Your Body: If your shoulder hurts after activity, don’t ignore it. If the pain is severe and does not recede, consult a doctor. You don’t have to strengthen it that can only make things worse.
• Stay Fit: Take care of your body fitness with regular exercise and healthy nutrition. In this way, you can maintain your health and avoid injury.
• Exercise In The Right Way: Warm up before training. Slowly start if you haven’t exercised or been exercising for a while. Learn how to lift weights properly. Don’t raise too much and don’t do heavy exercise at a time with shoulder movements.
• Watch The Work: Make sure you don’t hurt your shoulders when you are at work.
• Take a good position when sitting or standing.
• Follow the safe lifting weight rules. Keep your back straight and use your legs.
• Rest a few minutes every hour. Move and stretch.
• If you work at a desk, make sure your workstation is all set up so you can use your computer comfortably.
• Don’t try to achieve what you need: Use a step stool if you need to reach a high place. Place the items you use in the drawer or on the bottom shelf.
• For people who are less athletic or have arthritis in their knees, exercises to strengthen the quadriceps muscles in the hip can be very useful. So you don’t have to get up with your hands to get up from sitting.
• Elderly patients who rely on their hands to get up from their chairs can lift their favourite chairs with thickly folded blankets or short platforms to help them get up.
• Exercises that strengthen the rotator cuff muscles are also an essential part of prevention.
  Physiotherapy, which strengthens the rotator cuff muscles, can make your shoulder less prone to injury.

Conclusion:

A tear of the rotator cuff can significantly disrupt the movement of the shoulders and arms. While conservative methods can cure most injuries, some people require surgery to relieve pain and increase freedom of movement. If you think you have injured your rotator cuff or your injury seems to be getting worse, it is best to talk to a doctor.

People with rotator cuff injuries usually recover well from treatment. However, it is common to injure the same arm again, especially if you don’t change the way you use your arm. Older people tend to have problems with rotator cuffs and are more challenging to repair because their shoulders lack blood.

After you receive more information about the treatment and prevention of rotator cuff injuries, you can be sure that you will discuss with a doctor about shoulder health problems. For more information, please visit Dr. Chandrasekhar or call us at 9959588389