Rotator Cuff Tear Treatment – Does Not Always Need Surgical Intervention

Just because you have managed to tear your rotator cuff, it does not guarantee that you are going to require surgery. Rotator cuffs get injured in a number of different ways and each injury will be different depending on how it occurred in the first place.

Think of the tendons of the rotator cuff as being just like a piece of old tow rope, I say old simply because that's how you feel when you damage your rotator cuff. If you use the rope too often or allow it to rub against something sharp, it might start to fray, get worn a bit. and weaken.

It might be that you try towing something that is too heavy and end up stretching the rope, pulling the strands of rope apart. Pull away too quickly when you are towing and put a sudden load on the rope and it might simply snap or come away from the car.

Exactly the same can happen to the tendons of the rotator cuff. You can just wear them out by doing the same action over and over, you can put too much load on them and pull the fibres apart or if you are really unlucky you can end up snapping them completely.

All complete or full thickness tears will require surgery. If you have managed to detach the tendon from the bone you will certainly be looking at surgery to correct it.

I am happy to say , however, most or nearly all partial rotator cuff tears can be treated without resorting to surgery, providing you take them seriously right from the start and don't try carrying on regardless.

Even a small rotator cuff tear will cause inflammation of the tendons. This inflammation will cause impingement which basically means that your tendons are getting pinched or caught by bone each time that you move your shoulder in a certain way. Raising your arm above shoulder height will be painful, reaching behind you will be painful, you will find that getting to sleep is difficult because you can not put your weight on your injured shoulder.

Listen to the message that your body is sending because each pain is a sign of you doing more damage. You need to rest the shoulder, avoiding any movement that causes pain.

Rotator cuff tear treatment will involve rest to let the muscle to start getting better, combined with reducing any inflammation. Try using anti-inflammatory drugs like Ibuprofen, if there is no improvement, try a steroid injection. You also need to treat the inflammation with ice packs to reduce inflammation.

Once the inflammation has reduced movement will ease up. It will not be perfect straight away and that is where exercise helps to build up the rotator cuff tendons and get the shoulder moving again. This will be low resistance exercise aimed at isolating the rotator cuff muscles. Using large weights will just get the major muscles working and either ignore or at worst further damage the rotator cuff muscles.

The good news is that, because of that, a lot of these exercises Can be carried out at home.

Treat a rotator cuff tear properly and you can have a pain free shoulder back quickly and easily, ignore it and you might as well book surgery now.