The all too familiar "pop!" immediately followed by weakness, pain, and immobility; the classic signs of a shoulder injury. Many shoulder injuries affect the rotator cuff. "Each year approximately 200,000 American require surgery related to the repair of the rotator cuff" (Yamaguchi). This vast number of surgeries makes shoulder injuries a popular topic in the medical field. Physicians have been researching ways to improve patients' recovery and return their range of motion back to normal. One such improvement is the release of the long head of the biceps tendon.
One major injury suffered in the shoulder is to the rotator cuff. The rotator cuff is a group of muscles and its surrounding tendon in the shoulder. These muscles and tendons (rotator cuff) serve to stabilize the shoulder. Many athletes are at risk of injuring the rotator cuff through repetitive impact and sudden movements.
Surgical treatment of the rotator cuff is necessary in several cases. The most common of those cases being a complete or full length tear of the rotator cuff. This occurs when there is a tear across the rotator cuff creating two separate pieces. Another reason surgical intervention may be required is for a degenerative tear. A degenerative tear is one that begins as a small or partial tear and becomes progressively worse over time. Degenerative tears are usually the result of overuse of the shoulder, whereas full length tears tend to be from an acute injury. According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, Rotator cuff surgery is recommended if a patient presents any of the following: “symptoms that have lasted 6 to 12 months, a large tear (more than 3cm), significant weakness and loss of function in the shoulder, or the tear was caused by a r...
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Many factors like patients age, symptoms, size of the tear, and nature of onset (traumatic or degenerative) are responsible for determining the prognosis of the physical therapy treatment 9. Since it’s a partial thickness tear of the rotator cuff, the non-operative treatment is reasonable unlike, a full thickness tear where surgery will be required to treat the patient 9. The patient shows symptoms of moderate irritability without significant functional deficit which makes him a good candidate for conservative treatment 10. The pain reported by the patient is 6/10 so the patient participates well in physical therapy exercise to increase shoulder strength, and flexibility. There was a study done from Finland which asserted that physical therapy alone can produce results which are equal to those produced by arthroscopic surgery and open surgical repair in cases of rotator cuff tears 11. In this case, with three weeks of physical therapy the patient has showed a decrease in pain and reported it as 4/10 on pain rating scale and showed improvements in abduction (140̊) and external rotation (65̊). The MMT for shoulder abduction was 4-/5 and external rotation is still same as
Pitching overhand is a particularly stressful motion; the strain it puts on a player's joint is commonly injurious. Pitchers such as Kerry Wood, Matt Morris, John Smoltz, Mariano Rivera, Tom Gordon, and Eric Gagne all have a four inch scar on their pitching arms as evidence of this career saving surgery.
(2014, July 31). The Rate of Domestic Violence Arrests Among NFL Players | FiveThirtyEight. Retrieved from http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/the-rate-of-domestic-violence-arrests-among-nfl-players/
Rotator cuff tears are generally categorized as a chronic injury because it takes repetitive wear and tear on the muscles for it to finally inflict pain on the body. Chronic injuries are simply when the pain gradually continues over a long period of time. On the contrary, acute pain is when something happens suddenly and the pain is much more sharp than compared to the dull and long lasting pain of a chronic injury. (Source 3) In sports the biggest reason why an athlete would tear or injure his/her rotator cuff is not because something major happened instantly like a broken bone or a pulled muscle, but because they continued to put stress on these muscles over a certain period in time. The pain signals will stay active in the nervous system for several months. (Source3) Usually this will occur when the certain activity they are doing is perfomed incorrecty or in a harmful way. An example of this would be lifting too heavy of weights or not using proper technique.
Sports Injury Clinic. (2014, May 18). Knee pain diagnosis and assessment. Retrieved from Sports Injury Clinic: http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/sport-injuries/knee-pain/knee-assessment
The surgery that every pitcher has a nightmare of having is Tommy John. Tommy John surgery is one of the biggest surgeries in the sport of baseball. The most common players to have this surgery are pitchers. This surgery has made many players become more mentally and physically tougher and realize that you will never know when the last time you might be able to throw a ball. The first Tommy John Surgery happened in 1974 by an orthopedic surgeon Dr. Frank Jobe. Just this past season in 2014 there were 29 pitchers that had Tommy John Surgery (Tommy John surgery Wikipedia). Tommy John surgery is a renowned procedure that Dr. Jobe introduced to the health care professionals to reconstruct your ulnar collateral tendon
Heart Failure Overview WebMD Reviewed by Thomas M. Maddox, MD on May 28, 2012 http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/heart-failure/heart-failure-overview
There are many injuries in general, but sports injuries? Sprains and Strains are the most common injuries in sports. “Sprains are injuries to ligaments, the tough bands connecting in a joint. Suddenly stretching ligaments past their limits deforms or tears them” (Hoffman 1). Ligaments are like springs in a sense that when you stretch a spring, it will return to it’s normal state unless they are
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Patient returned the next day still complaining of pain. The PT applied heat, then initiated the exercise program, but the patient could not perform theem to same extent as previously, secondary to pain. Therefore, the PT told the patient to schedule an appointment with his physician. The patient was seen by the MD the next day and an arthrogram performed that revealed a reinjure to the repaired site. And a second surgery repaired the rotator cuff.
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Rotator cuff tear – The muscles adjoining the shoulder joint are required for rotating the shoulder, amid other movements. The tendons of these muscles furthermore influence the structural strength of the shoulder joint. Harsh, rapid actions, for example in tennis and baseball, can result in tearing of one of these tendons. This then causes pain as well as a decline in range of motion. Surgery possibly will be necessary to repair a torn
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