Always been natural. At 55 years of age you still have a lot of living still to do, so don't be afraid to talk openly with your doctor about the success rates for all of the options available to you, and the likely recovery times involved. While I can't give you specific advice over the internet, it sounds like you are doing a great job following the recommednations of your doctors. If you know you have a rotator cuff tear, worsening pain and decreasing strength may mean the tear is getting larger. The surgeon may (or may not) want to try arthroscopic surgery to repair any damage or structural problems they can identify on an MRI. . @pawpaw911: Hi Pawpaw911, thanks for dropping by. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your story. The major tear causes separation of muscle or tendon into two torn segment of muscles or tendons. Surgery may also involve orthopedic alteration of biomechanical factors around the shoulder joint in order to prevent further ongoing damage to the supraspinatus tendon. The types of findings you have described are consistent with some quite substantial pathology in your shoulder. I. report .This happen 9 weeks ago , my shoulder is still sores I am going for phisio, messages and still no progess,does that mean I will need surgery,or will it heel by it self. I'm not really sure how the whole army doctor situation works while you are on deployment, but I think if you have ongoing symptoms then it is worth making sure the appropriate people know. In layman terms, I would say this means your supraspinatus tendon has probably been irritated for quite a while, and has a small tear near where it attaches to the bone (but tendon is currently still attached). I received today my results of a CT Scan from my right shoulder, which I had an accident like 5 months ago. No black and white answer for this one I'm afraid. Rotator Cuff Tears: Surgical Treatment Options. I can say though that PT's are trained to help people with painful ROM. Also an ex ray of my shoulder "Demonstrate my humeral head close to abutting my acromion. In these cases often a multidisciplinary treatment team skilled in treating whiplash can be very useful (this may include health professionals like physiotherapists, psychologists, occupational therapists and doctors). Went down a water slide on a mat head first arms supporting my body. LOTS of heavy benching, etc. So while the cost of surgery can be expensive, people who can't do their job one-handed may also need to consider potential loss of income as well or making alternative work arrangements. Adhesive capsulitis will usually last at least 5 or 6 months (often considerably longer). The medical staff there did an x-ray, which did not turn anything up, and once again, were not overly concerned with my condition, but just instructed me to continue to ice pack my shoulder and take some pain medication. Thanks for stopping by. Surgery for a minor partial thickness tear will often involve a simple debridement of the tear. It is common for patients with known rotator cuff disease to have acute pain and weakness following a minor injury. For all you that are going to have this surgery be prepared for the long haul you will feel the feelings of uselessness, frustration, anger, and people looking at you like your full of it hang in there! Yes, surgery can be painful initially, but your surgeon should be able to tell you the likelihood of a successful outcome of surgery based on your specific circumstances. They decided to do a re examination of my MRI to see if there was something they were missing. Anyone want to shed a little light for a vet? Remember that you are not aiming for speed; slow, steady, and controlled movement is best. So in other words, tendinosis is the condition and one of the rotator cuff tendons is probably the structure that was affected. When the most effective non-surgical interventions (such as physical therapy) have not been able to provide sufficient relief of symptoms, then arthroscopic shoulder surgery is often considered. (Right) A full-thickness tear in the supraspinatus tendon. I hope your shoulder has now recovered! muscle atrophy of supraspinatus, infraspinatus, and subscapularis muscles, 3.) Advice welcomed. Full thickness tear means a complete tear of the rotator cuff supraspinatus tendon. >5cm), depth (partial or full thickness), degree of fatty infiltration (Goutallier. There is no question that the word 'small' can be misleading regarding the amount of pain and discomfort that a supraspinatus tendon tear can cause. Generally, if an injury is going to heal on it's own, it gets better over time, unless it is re-injured. The use of steroid injection for treatment of a full-thickness rotator cuff tear is still controversial. Good luck! Children are such a blessing and that time nursing your newborn is such a special and important time. if applied to the common anterior supraspinatus tendon tear, the term full thickness means that if the tear is viewed . feeling pain in hand,,,. Recovery after surgery can be quite drawn out, often requiring 6 months or more before functioning becomes similar to before the injury. I have been seeing an orthopedic doctor for the past 18 months. Getting a second opinion when you are not sure about your first is also often a good idea. The tendons may tear from their attachment either after an injury such as a fall or from long-term wear and tear. The primary purpose of these muscles is to prevent the head of the humerus, or upper arm bone, from driving into the shoulder joint as you lift your arm away from your body or overhead. It can reduce (relocate back into the socket) long before someone makes it to a hospital (or an onboard medic!) @anonymous: Dude, I just did nearly the exact same thing. If the injection does give you pain relief, it may allow you a couple of months without pain to do exercises that can strengthen your rotator cuff and improve the biomechanics at your shoulder in an effort to reduce irritation of the bursa and Supraspinatus tendon. Debridement involves trimming the frayed edges of the tear back to healthy tissue in order to allow it to heal itself. I completed 6 treatments of prolotherapy approximately 9 months ago prior to this latest diagnosis. He prescribed Vicodin and arthrotec for painbut I would like to get pregnant within a year but would like to be fixed first for obvious reasons. I wrote a previous commentsaw my orthopedic surgeon this week. Rotator cuff exercises are often prescribed for people with a partial tear of the supraspinatus tendon. is likely to be required if you want less shoulder pain. Second, I am sorry to hear about your fall and subsequent shoulder pain. To recap I have had debridement and subacromial decompression, am 34 years old and now have arthritis, bursitis, tendinitis and impingement. Supraspinatus tears are often accompanied by adjacent structural deficits. It was sometime in the early months of 2011 that I was sent off to have an MRI done. These four muscles (supraspinatus, infraspinatus, subscapularis, and teres minor) stabilize the glenohumeral joint, enable rotation around the joint, and provide a counterforce to . Crossref, Medline, Google Scholar; 35 Ellman H, Kay SP, Wirth M. Arthroscopic treatment of full-thickness rotator cuff tears: 2- to 7-year follow-up study. I just received my MRI report which states : supraspinatus tendon is thickened and immediate in signal, with a small 3mm (transverse) x 3mm (AP) full thickness footplate tear. The reverse shoulder surgery is extremely involved so I am getting a second opinion. Massive. I've only got a couple of minutes, so I'll keep this short. I took a not so graceful fall on a sidewalk about 9 weeks ago and landed on my shoulder. The results are: full thickness cuff tear 2.3 cm AP involving supra spinets and a portion of infra spinets at distal critical zone and enthesis. It sounds like you are on the right track with your surgeon and physical therapist. Particularly about what many people are likely to experience during the often long road to recovery. Some people will say that exercises didn't work for them, but it turns out actually doing the exercises (rather than just thinking about them) drastically increases the chance of them being effective! The recovery after surgical tendon repairs often takes longer than recovering from broken bones. The words 'very large, nearly complete with 1cm retraction of tendon fibres' are a bit concerning. I saw doctor initially who said physiotherapy will help it. Overall, it will often take 6 months or more before the shoulder is completely back to normal. Thanks for sharing. Severe pain after. The supraspinatus tendon has a tendency to weaken with age and become prone to tendon tears. If a condition stays the same or become worse, then its usually a good idea to get it checked out again, or even a second opinion if you are not happy. Massage may give you some short term relief, but I'm not sure massage on its own will have long term benefit that is additional to natural healing. In general terms of the types of MRI findings you have described, a combination of these types of pathology could require surgery; particularly if symptoms persisted after trying non-surgical interventions. This level of degradation is not particularly common for someone so young, but does happen from time to time and may well lead to a complete rupture. over the years, but not really in recent year, as my shoulders got cranky. ; 2. These injections usually include an anti-inflammatory that can last for a couple months delivered directly to the problem area(s) and a local anesthetic that will work for the first few days until the anti-inflammatory starts to give relief. He says the tendon is fraying like a ropethat he would need to reattach to the bone. With partial thickness rotator cuff tears only part of the tendon has torn off the bone. ), a shoulder x-ray may not reveal anything conclusive. But not result in a normal shoulder. coracoacromial ligament. Supraspinatus tendon tears are the most common tendon tear in the shoulder region. Twenty-one of the 70 partial-thickness tears were not rim-rent tears: there were nine (12.9%) tears in the critical zone, 10 (14.3%) interstitial tears, and two (2.9%) bursal-sided tears. All material on this website is protected by copyright. Even pain from a full-thickness tear can be relieved without surgery through exercises that make other muscles strong enough to pick up the slack. If the ball is popping out of the joint (dislocating), then that is a major concern (but this usually doesn't occur without trauma)! Injuries are a less common cause of partial tears than aging. Many people will recover after receiving treatment from a physiotherapist (or physical therapist in USA). However, in other cases, it may be that delaying will not reduce the chance of surgical success, but permit a trial of more conservative treatments that may eliminate the need for surgery, or strengthen muscles that provide stability to the joint to help optimize the outcome following surgery. A full-thickness tear, which usually means the tendon is torn from its insertion on the humerus (the most common injury), is repaired directly to bone. Supraspinatus tendon tears require specific rehabilitation of the rotator cuff and muscles that stabilize the shoulder blade. its been three months with some pt but no noticeable improvement. In most patients the supraspinatus tendon is the most vulnerable and 90% of rotator cuff tears involve this tendon. Shoulder arthroscopy and rotator cuff repair (supraspinatus repair) is the best treatment option with a 90 to 95 % success rate. It is not very common that two orthopedic specialists would have very different opinions on what is wrong with your shoulder (although does happen from time to time). However, to date, I am not aware of any rigorous large-scale clinical trials that have demonstrated effectiveness (or otherwise) in humans. I understand most of it but I was wondering is there supposed to be fluid in the acromioclavicular joint. While it is estimated that 65-70% of all shoulder pain involves the rotator cuff tendon, it has been estimated that 5 to 40 % of people without shoulder pain have full-thickness tears of the rotator cuff. Lots of people express feeling useless, frustrated, and angry at times. It is also worth knowing there are just some jobs that seem to take a heavy toll on shoulders / supraspinatus tendons (unfortunately I think painter / sheet rock installer / any occupation where you need to hold things up above shoulder or head height are right at the top of that list). This is possibly caused by microdamage to the tendon that is painful and can weaken it over time. I explained of my ongoing problems since the incident, and once the claim was processed I was sent through a variety of medical departments for a full diagnostic. The Physician is online now Related Medical Questions The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. These tears can be painful. If you have been diagnosed with a partial thickness tear and begin experiencing more pain you should talk to your orthopaedic surgeon. Irreparable. The anterior band of the supraspinatus (most common tear location) is an agonist to external rotation. It plays a critical role in movements involving the shoulder joint, particularly arm elevation. Mild AC arthropathy. Should you immobilize or not move a shoulder with a suspected partial rotator cuff tear? In many cases, surgery is required. Arthroscopy 1993;9(2): 195-200. Does a full thickness tear of the supraspinatus tendon need surgery? I'm not sure whether the doctor you mentioned is a family physician / general practitioner or an orthopedic consultant / surgeon. I can reach behind my back ok. Now, my Ortho doc #2 who recommended i do the MRI also reccomends a surgery to fix the tear. However, some people will never experience the same level of recovery without the surgery. I have had shoulder pain for years and years. Good luck! ROM hurts so I'm not sure. So my tear went from a near full thickness tear to a full thickness tear. The lack of a normal amount of synovial fluid in the joint space could potentially be a sign of adhesive capsulitis (also known as frozen shoulder) among some people. If the tendon has been completely ruptured (no longer attached), then surgery will definitely be required with some level of urgency for the tendon to be successfully reattached. I don't know what exactly to do, or what my REALISTIC problem could be. The supraspinatus is the tendon that tends to suffer from partial tears most commonly. For most of my life I trained with bodybuilding-style workouts 4 or 5 days per week. There are a few interesting things worth noting here. 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