| Torn rotator cuff symptoms are fairly easy to identify | | | | tendonitis with just occasional pain or a dull ache, |
| but getting it wrong or ignoring them can cause a lot of | | | | perhaps after exercise or work. This can be caused |
| potential problems, so what are the classic symptoms | | | | by one of the tendons becoming inflamed and can |
| and what should you do if you have them. | | | | usually be treated with rest and anti-inflammatory |
| The rotator cuff is a group of four relatively small | | | | drugs or ice packs. |
| muscles that help to stabilise and move the shoulder. | | | | Shoulder tendonitis if left untreated can eventually lead |
| Most of the time they work on autopilot and it is only | | | | to a shoulder impingement. This is where tendon |
| when we damage them that we are reminded, usually | | | | becomes so swollen that it is getting pinched when |
| painfully, that they are there. | | | | you move. This is more serious and although the |
| Their job is to pull the top of the arm into the socket of | | | | treatment is similar to tendonitis the timescales involved |
| the shoulder to prevent us from dislocating our | | | | can be longer. It is important to treat a shoulder |
| shoulder and also to help with rotational movement of | | | | impingement as if it is ignored it can eventually lead to |
| the arm. | | | | a rotator cuff tear as the tendon gets worn. |
| The socket of the shoulder joint is very shallow which | | | | A knock or fall can also result in a rotator cuff tear or |
| allows us the wide range of movement that we enjoy | | | | injury. Any work or sports activity that involves a lot of |
| but it also gives the shoulder its inherent weak point. | | | | overhead reaching can bring on the symptoms. |
| Each of the four muscles of the rotator cuff is | | | | The simplest advice is that if you have had shoulder |
| attached to the shoulder blade at one end and | | | | pain that has gone on for more than three days or is |
| attaches to the upper arm bone (humerus) at the | | | | getting worse with time, it is best to get it checked out |
| other. All of them take a slightly different route | | | | by a professional. The sooner you start treatment the |
| depending on where, on the humerus, they attach. | | | | less likely you are to make things worse and the |
| Together they form a cuff of muscles around the joint | | | | quicker the recovery will be. |
| stabilising it, hence the name. | | | | Treatment, if started early, usually means resting, |
| Torn rotator cuff symptoms can start with a dull ache | | | | treating the inflammation with anti-inflammatory drugs |
| in the shoulder which spreads down the arm. You will | | | | and ice packs and then starting some shoulder specific |
| experience pain when trying to lift the arm to the front | | | | exercises to strengthen the rotator cuff and |
| or side and may have difficulty reaching behind you, to | | | | surrounding muscles. |
| tuck in clothing for example. The arm will become | | | | There are a few of us who where we may have a |
| weaker and the pain can quickly become debilitating. | | | | genetic disposition to rotator cuff problems. In this case |
| One test is to try slowly raising your arm whilst | | | | or if you have managed to get a particularly bad tear, |
| someone else pushes gently against it. If this hurts then | | | | you may need corrective surgery but this is actually |
| you almost certainly have torn a rotator cuff muscle. | | | | quite rare and usually undertaken after conservative |
| A torn rotator cuff can come about in a number of | | | | treatments have failed. |
| different ways. You could start out with shoulder | | | | |