What is a rotator cuff injury?
Rotator cuff injury occurs when the muscles and their tendons, in the shoulder get inflamed or irritated. A rotator cuff is a group of four muscles that play a vital role in stabilizing the shoulder and regulating its’ movement.
Rotator cuff injury may occur either due to impingement (the swelling of rotator cuff muscle or due to a tear), or when the rotator cuff muscle or the tendon gets torn. The swelling or the tear may either result due to an injury, constant pressure over the shoulder muscles, or due to aging.
The symptoms of rotator cuff injury include pain, swelling, and stiffness in the arm and shoulder area, weakness, inability to carry any weight. Also, you might notice a clicking sound when you raise your arm and feel pain whenever the arm is put to work.
Rotator cuff injury treatment
Once you are certain that the rotator cuff is the reason for uneasiness in your shoulder joint, the following treatments can be considered:
In case RICE technique is ineffective, and the injury seems to be severe, consider the following treatment options:
Surgery
When no other option seems helpful, surgery is the last resort. However, there are a number of surgeries for rotator cuff, some of them are:
In this type of surgery, the surgeon takes out the rounded head of the upper arm bone, and with the use of screws and surgical tools, a plastic socket is fixed to the remaining bone. A fraction of the socket, in the shoulder blade, is detached, which is in turn replaced with a metal ball.
Consult a doctor immediately if you have injured your rotator cuff to get the correct rotator cuff injury treatment.
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