Treating Rotator Cuff Tears Glastonbury

What is the Rotator Cuff?

The rotator cuff is a group of four muscles and their tendons that help support and stabilize the shoulder joint socket. Each of the muscles attaches to the scapula (the shoulder blade), and the tendons reach around and grab the ball of the shoulder to help hold it in the socket during movement. Sometimes these are referred to as the “SITS” muscles, referring to their names: Supraspinatus, Infraspinatus, Teres minor, and Subscapularis.

The main purpose of the rotator cuff is NOT to rotate the shoulder. Rather, it’s to stabilize and provide support for the entire shoulder joint.

What Kind of Damage Can Occur to the Rotator Cuff?

The tendons and muscles of the rotator cuff can succumb to the same types of injuries as any other muscle or tendon, including sprains, strains, tendinitis, and tears.

What is a Rotator Cuff Tear?

As the name implies, a rotator cuff tear is a tear in one or more of the tendons of the cuff. These can be very small tears within the body of the tendon (known as an “interstitial” tear), massive and complete tears, or anything else in between. Rotator cuff tears are very common, affecting as many as 2 million people in the United States every year.

How Do Rotator Cuff Injuries Occur?

The rotator cuff can be injured in all kinds of ways, but it most often has to do with repetitive overuse, progressive stress over time (from things such as improper weight training), or an acute, sudden injury such as falling on the shoulder or trying to lift something too heavy. The rotator cuff is also vulnerable to degenerative changes that come with aging.

Learn More About How Rotator Cuff Injuries Occur

What are the Symptoms of Rotator Cuff Injury?

Pain while your shoulder is resting is one of the most common symptoms of a rotator cuff injury. You may also experience:

• Pain when lifting your arm
• Pain when lying on the affected shoulder
• A crackling sound when you move your arm
• Muscle weakness during movement
• Pain radiating to the outside of the upper arm, the upper back, the neck, or down the forearm

During an acute (sudden) injury, you could experience a snapping sensation as the rotator cuff tears followed by severe pain and/or sudden weakness. Rotator cuff tears that develop slowly due to degeneration usually cause a dull ache and muscle weakness.

Learn More About Rotator Cuff Injury Symptoms

How are Rotator Cuff Injuries and Tears Diagnosed?

When you come to our office with concerns about shoulder pain, our team can perform a thorough exam to identify the underlying cause of your discomfort. This can include a review of your symptoms and your medical history, as well as a physical exam.

To help confirm whether your shoulder symptoms are due to a rotator cuff injury, a diagnostic ultrasound will also be performed. Ultrasound is an excellent way to visualize the muscles and tendons of the cuff. If there is still any doubt about whether a tear is present, an MRI may be ordered.

How are Rotator Cuff Injuries Treated?

Treatment of your rotator cuff injury will depend on the nature and severity of the injury, your symptoms, and the cause of your injury. For tendinitis and mild tears, your treatment may include:

• Resting and icing the affected area
• Taking anti-inflammatory medication
• Making changes to your physical activities
• Physical therapy
• EWST (extracorporeal shock wave treatment)
• Therapeutic home ultrasound

If conservative methods fail to improve your tendinitis or mild rotator cuff tear, then the team at the New England Stem Cell Institute may recommend regenerative medicine treatments such as platelet-rich plasma (PRP), which when injected into your damaged cuff, can help accelerate the natural healing process.

For larger cuff tears, fat-derived stem cell treatment is often recommended for those persons wishing to avoid surgery. Fat can be an excellent source of stem cells from your own body. Unlike PRP and bone marrow-derived stem cells, fat has the advantage of being almost like putty or filler that can fill in larger cuff tears. This keeps the healing cells in place, so they augment tissue repair. Using a gentle, minimally invasive liposuction technique, we take a small amount of fat from the “love handles” and process it to release the stem cells and other regenerative healing cells. The processed fat is then injected into the tear using ultrasound guidance. For a massive or complete tear, surgery may be required.