When I am explaining rotator cuff surgery to patients, one of the most common questions I get is, “How do you repair the tear?”
My answer typically involves an explanation of some basics about rotator cuff tears:
I have noted in other posts that rotator cuff tears can cause a lot of confusion. Let’s assume that your doctor has diagnosed you with a rotator cuff tear. He or she presents you with a few options: physical therapy, injections, surgery. You have a small tear. You are in a lot of pain, but … Read more
Why Are Suture Anchors Used in Shoulder Surgery? Suture anchors are small devices used to attach soft tissue (like tendons or ligaments) to bone. They are critical tools in modern orthopedic procedures, particularly in rotator cuff repairs, labral repairs, and instability surgeries. By providing a stable fixation point, they allow tissues to heal back to … Read more
When I am explaining rotator cuff surgery to patients, one of the most common questions I get is, “How do you repair the tear?”
My answer typically involves an explanation of some basics about rotator cuff tears:
One of the most interesting parts of my job is that I get to interact with so many different types of people on a regular basis. Their different personality types color many of the decisions we make in the office more than most people realize.
When you are studying to be a doctor, much of the initial schooling focuses on the hard sciences: anatomy, physiology, biochemistry. But once you get through that and are a practicing professional, you find that the emphasis shifts significantly.
We highlighted an article a while ago about how smoking was bad for your bones in general. It not only leads to osteoporosis (weak bone) but can lead to poor healing if you are unlucky enough to break a bone.
Most people know that smoking is bad for your heart and lungs. Few people know that it’s bad for your bones and joints.
There’s a host of reasons why smoking leads to poor bone health. And I’m not sure how interested you are in the nitty gritty bichemical details of why this is. So I will cut to the chase and highlight two specific scenarios in which smoking can be bad for your bones.
The other day a patient asked me if he should exercise his shoulder before getting a shoulder replacement. A little background, the patient is about 60 years old and is an avid weight lifter. I was a little confused by the question so I asked him to clarify.
He thought that if he increased his shoulder and chest strength before surgery, this would make it easier for him to recover and for me to do the surgery.
Rotator cuff tears can be tricky. And unfortunately not all rotator cuff repairs are fool proof. Older studies showed that rotator cuff repairs failed to heal in up to 3/4 of attempts in some patients.
Newer studies tend to show more favorable results but on average still report at least a 1/4 chance of retiring of the rotator cuff repair.
The patient was about 40 years old. My hunch was that she had a repair that never healed. The evidence was there: she already had one failed repair, a re-repair and her symptoms were exactly the same as when she first came to the previous doctor: popping, catching, pain with reaching across her body and … Read more