Rotator cuff injuries can vary from mild discomfort caused by overuse to significant tearing requiring surgical intervention. These injuries can disrupt your life in various ways, including making it difficult to sleep, preventing you from working, and stopping you from enjoying recreational activities.
At Long Island Spine Rehabilitation Medicine, our physiatrists can often help patients with their rotator cuff injuries without surgery. However, when surgery is necessary, our team can refer you to the right specialist for your injury and help make your shoulder more comfortable and flexible while you await treatment.
What Is a Rotator Cuff?
The rotator cuff is a group of muscles and tendons that surround and support the shoulder joint, keeping the ball of the humerus (upper arm bone) within the shoulder socket. When the rotator cuff sustains an injury, it can result in painful movement, loss of mobility, and weakness in the arm.
What Are the Different Types of Rotator Cuff Injuries?
You may experience one of several types of rotator cuff injuries, depending on the incident that caused it:
- Partial Tears: These injuries involve a tendon or muscle sustaining a small tear that doesn’t completely sever it. They can often heal on their own over time, but may require physical therapy.
- Complete Tears: These are severe injuries in which the muscles or tendons separate into two pieces, typically requiring surgery to repair.
- Acute Tears: These are sudden tears caused by the muscles and tendons being put under extreme stress, such as when lifting a heavy object. These traumatic injuries require immediate medical attention to prevent them from healing incorrectly.
How Do Rotator Cuff Injuries Commonly Occur?
Rotator cuff injuries can occur in three main ways:
- Deterioration: This damage occurs over time due to regular wear and tear on the tendons. When deterioration progresses too much, it can cause shoulder pain, stiffness, and discomfort.
- Tears: These often occur due to traumatic events, including falls, sports accidents, and activities that put excessive strain on your shoulder, such as lifting weights.
- Overuse: Repetitive activities, such as lifting boxes at work or constantly reaching above your head to retrieve objects on a high shelf, can inflame the muscles and tendons in your shoulder, resulting in pain and reduced mobility.
What Are the Risk Factors Leading to Rotator Cuff Injuries?
Like other joint injuries, rotator cuff injuries are more likely to occur in older adults. As we age, our muscles and tendons experience more wear and tear, and our bodies don’t recover from minor injuries as quickly as they used to, causing those injuries to compound until they become debilitating.
Some of the most significant risk factors for developing rotator cuff injuries include:
- Your age, as older adults may sustain more injuries
- Your genetics, as some people are more prone to tendon strains
- Your occupation, as certain jobs require workers to use their shoulders excessively
- Your recreational activities, as sports like baseball and tennis have a higher rate of these injuries
Identifying the risk factors that contributed to your rotator cuff injury can help you take steps to avoid future injury.
What Are the Most Common Symptoms of Rotator Cuff Injuries?
While shoulder pain is the most common rotator cuff injury symptom that patients report, it’s by no means the only symptom. Other symptoms you may experience that could indicate a rotator cuff injury are:
- A dull, aching sensation deep within the shoulder
- Difficulty sleeping due to shoulder discomfort
- Difficulty raising your arm above your head or chest
- Weakness in the affected arm
- Numbness or tingling in the affected arm, hand, and fingers
If you experience a sudden weakness in your arm following a shoulder injury, you should seek immediate medical treatment. This can be a sign of a muscle or tendon tear, and continued use of the affected shoulder could result in further damage.
How Are Rotator Cuff Injuries Diagnosed?
Diagnosing your rotator cuff injury is crucial for getting you the treatment and care you need. Our diagnosticians can quickly determine the type and extent of your injury and will refer you to a surgeon if it involves a severe tear.
Some of the diagnostic tools we use to determine the severity of rotator cuff injuries include:
- X-Rays: While these images aren’t used to see damaged muscles or tendons, they can rule out other causes of your pain and discomfort relating to your bones.
- Ultrasounds and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): These tools provide detailed images of the soft tissues that make up the rotator cuff, allowing our physiatrists to identify the precise location of the damage.
- Electromyography (EMG): EMGs are used to detect nerve damage related to your rotator cuff injury, as they can show the electrical activity being passed through your shoulder into your arm.
What Treatment Options Are Available for Rotator Cuff Injuries?
Depending on the type and severity of your rotator cuff injury, our doctors may recommend several types of treatment:
- Rest, icing the area, and avoiding the activity that caused your injury will help regardless of your injury’s severity.
- Ultrasound-guided corticosteroid injections can be used to relieve pain during your healing process.
- Physical therapy can help strengthen your shoulder, increase your range of motion, and prevent scar tissue from forming.
- Our doctors also offer other types of treatment, including acupuncture, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy, and pulsed electromagnetic field therapy (PEMF).
- Surgery to reattach muscles and tendons that have completely torn due to a traumatic injury event.
Contact our Experienced Long Island Team of Rotator Cuff Injury Specialists Today
If you experienced a rotator cuff injury in Long Island, NY, contact Long Island Spine Rehabilitation Medicine to schedule an appointment with one of our shoulder specialists. Our team is dedicated to relieving your pain, increasing your mobility, and improving your overall quality of life through comprehensive treatment.