A Rotator Cuff Repair Might Be Simpler Than You Thought

Rotator cuff problems are one of the most common injuries. Eight million people in the USA will visit their doctor with a shoulder injury each year and nearly all of them will be for rotator cuff injuries. These could range from a strain to a full thickness tear.

The reassuring news is that for the majority of people a rotator cuff repair will not involve any surgery. Surgery is usually thought of as the last resort unless your shoulder is stopping you from working or you are keen on a particular sport or you have a full thickness tear. Recent research has shown that there are a number of people walking around with torn rotator cuffs without exhibiting any of the usual symptoms. The number could be as high as thirty percent in the over fifties who have a rotator cuff tear that gives them no trouble. This figure could be as high as seventy percent in the over eighties.

Physical Therapy is now seen as the number one treatment for rotator cuff problems and most cuff injuries will respond well to it. The theory, borne out by the recent research, is that a rotator cuff tear does not have to heal in order to be rehabilitated. With twenty two seperate muscles involved in shoulder movement there are plenty of muscles around to help a damaged rotator cuff.

The aim of shoulder physical therapy in shoulder injuries is to strengthen all the muscles so that the shoulder works more efficiently. This way other muscles will take over and allow the cuff to heal.

Therapy for a shoulder injury must start with a period of rest to allow healing to start, treating inflamed tendons with anti inflammatory drugs and ice at the same time. If you control the inflammation in shoulder injuries you will control the pain. If off the shelf anti-inflammatory drugs do not seem to do the trick then steroid injections administered by your doctor will kick start the process.

Once the injury has started to settle down and better movement has returned you can start a shoulder specific physical therapy programme to facilitate the rotator cuff repair. This will tend to start with stretching exercises to improve mobility gradually moving on to low resistance or low weight exercises to start waking up weakened shoulder muscles. The most important thing is that you take it easy and don't rush it as you need to avoid any painful movements.

Gradually over a few weeks you can increase the level and variety of exercises to strengthen the shoulder. This in turn, supports the injured rotator cuff tendon and allows it to heal.

These exercises do not involve pushing weights at the gym. Gym work will probably cause more damage. Shoulder rehabilitation exercises focus on flexibility and control before moving on to strengthening exercises. Some will focus on individual muscles and some on groups of muscles but the end result is to strengthen the whole shoulder to support the healing and avoid future injuries..

So if you are worrying about a rotator cuff repair, stop, it is probably a lot easier than you think.

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