Rotator Cuff Injury & Treatment

What’s a Rotator Cuff?

Rotator Tendons The rotator cuff is a group of muscles and tendons in your shoulder. Specifically it is comprised of the four major muscles along with their tendons that wrap around the front, back, and top of the shoulder joint. Their job is to connect your upper arm bone to the shoulder blade, and help hold the ball at the end of the upper arm firmly in the shoulder socket.

The rotator cuff is so named because it controls the shoulder joint during rotation, and in fact provides your shoulder with dynamic stability through the greatest range of motion of any joint in the body.

Rotator Cuff Injury (find how to treat here…)

However, this amazing range of motion can put the shoulder under considerable stress, and as a result, rotator cuff injuries are fairly common. Causes include falling, lifting, and repetitive overhead arm movements. Activities ranging from reaching up to a top shelf, throwing a football or baseball, to working underneath your car, can all lead to the injury. It’s also common among people whose jobs or hobbies include heavy demands on their shoulders, such as athletes and construction workers. Poor posture can contribute too, and as one gets older, the risk of a rotator cuff injury increases.

The type of injury can range from inflammation of the muscle without any permanent damage, to a complete or partial tear of the muscle that might require surgery to fix it. Most of the time, treatment involves self-care measures or exercise therapy.

Types of Rotator Cuff Injury

Tendonitis: Repetitive trauma to the muscle by everyday movement of the shoulder. Tendons in rotator cuff become inflamed due to overuse or overload, especially in athletes who perform a lot of overhead activities, such as tennis players. Also from the degeneration or wearing out of the muscles with age.
Bursitis: The fluid-filled sac (bursa) between your shoulder joint and rotator cuff tendons can become irritated and inflamed.
Chronic Tear: Results from repetitive stress. Continual overhead movement of your arms can stress rotator cuff muscles and tendons, causing inflammation and eventually tearing. This occurs often in athletes, especially baseball pitchers and tennis players. It’s also common among people in the building trades, such as painters and carpenters.
Acute Tear: Results from falls directly on the shoulder, or on the arm while raised in an attempt to cushion a fall; Lifting an object that’s too heavy with arms extended – especially overhead; Pulling something like an archery bow with too high a tension setting.

Signs and Symptoms

Pain and tenderness in the shoulder, especially when reaching overhead, reaching behind your back, lifting, pulling or sleeping on the affected side
Shoulder weakness and/or loss of shoulder range of motion
Favoring your shoulder – tendency to keep it inactive

The most common symptom is pain. You may experience it when you reach up to comb your hair, bend your arm back to put on a jacket or carry something heavy. Lying or sleeping on the affected shoulder also can be painful. If you have a severe injury, such as a large tear, you may experience continuous pain and muscle weakness.

Can I Treat the Injury Myself? (read a proven method…)

In a majority of cases, where there is not an acute injury, the answer is yes. Initially you can take the steps below, followed up with proper training and strength conditioning for the injured shoulder. It should be noted that improper exercise can make the injury worse and prolong possible healing. Be sure to utilize a method of conditioning, training, and strengthening that is reliable and medically proven.

Rest the injured shoulder. Cease doing whatever caused the injury and limit activity with the affected joint for up to a week.
Apply cold for 15 to 20 minutes at a time, at least 3 times a day for the first 2 days following the injury (preferably every couple hours the first day). Use a cold pack or simply ice wrapped in a towel. This will reduce inflammation and pain.
Apply heat after first 2 days. Do this several times for about 20 minutes each. Use a heating pad of heat pack. The warmth will relax muscles that are sore and tight.
Take over-the-counter pain relievers to reduce pain and inflammation. Use aspirin, ibuprofen, or acetaminophen per your preference, and according to label directions.
Gently start exercising the affected muscles after a couple days to keep the muscles limber and avoid stiff joints. Once the injury heals, and some range of motion has returned, keep exercising to recondition and strengthen the muscles.

When Should I Seek Medical Attention?

Seek medical attention if:

The pain persists for more than 2-3 days
You’re unable to work due to pain or limited movement
You’re not able to resume a sport or activity that you did prior to the injury
You can’t reach up or out, even to shoulder height, with the affected arm after 2-3 days
For any acute injury where you’re unable to move the injured shoulder at all

Who’s Susceptible to Injury?

Though seen in both the young and old, rotator cuff tears are much more common among older people simply due to less use of the muscles and loss of elasticity in the tissues. Thus they become more susceptible to damage, and injury often happens while performing everyday activities.

In younger patients, there is usually either a traumatic injury, or as seen in professional athletes, the patient is demanding unusual use of their shoulder and overstressing it.

When an injury does happen, don’t ignore it. Whether from age, falls, or over-stress, rotator cuff injuries are usually treatable with stretching, strengthening, and anti-inflammatory medication with the expectation of a full return to normal activity. However, early evaluation and treatment are critical to prevent mild inflammation from becoming a more serious tear of the rotator cuff. And if the cuff is badly torn, early arthroscopic or open repair may be the best course of rotator cuff treatment.

Prevention

Obviously, avoiding a direct landing on the shoulder or extended arm during a fall is good advice, but sometimes it just happens.

Beyond that, both the extent, and frequency of rotator cuff injuries can be diminished by warming up prior to shoulder stressing activities. Coupled with regular stretching, and strength conditioning of the shoulder muscles, this will not only decrease injuries, but also increase performance.

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