When it comes to shoulder pain, most people think of frozen shoulder, but in fact, there is another common clinical condition that can also cause pain, impaired movement and other discomfort in the shoulder joint, and that is – rotator cuff injury.
What is rotator cuff injury?
What is rotator cuff?
The rotator cuff is a group of tendon complexes around the humeral head, consisting of the tendons of the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor and subscapularis muscles, forming a sleeve similar to a garment, hence the name rotator cuff.
The rotator cuff plays an extremely important role in maintaining the stability of the shoulder joint and shoulder joint movement, and is an important tissue for traction to perform internal, external and supination movements of the shoulder joint.
In Chinese medicine, the causes of rotator cuff injury include qi stagnation and blood stasis, cold and dampness, liver and kidney deficiency, and qi and blood deficiency.
Symptoms of Rotator Cuff Injury
Rotator cuff injury is caused by inflammation, partial or complete tearing of the tendons that make up the rotator cuff, resulting in a series of symptoms and signs.
Pain: The typical symptom is pain at night, which often increases when moving to a certain position.
Restricted motion: The primary motion of the shoulder joint is restricted, but the passive range of motion is usually not significantly restricted.
Decreased strength: weakness in abduction, supination or posterior extension.
Treatment of Rotator Cuff Injury
Treatment of rotator cuff injuries includes conservative and surgical treatment.
For tears smaller than 1 cm, conservative treatment can be chosen, including topical medication and PRP autologous serum injections to promote growth and other methods to reduce the size of the tear. When there is a risk of continued enlargement of small tears, then suture treatment is recommended. In addition, functional exercises and the use of topical herbs, moxibustion and acupuncture can be combined to promote recovery.
Tears larger than 1 cm with no obvious contraindications to surgery or tears of 3-5 cm are usually selected for surgical suturing to fix the tendon to its original position.
Tears larger than 5 cm are called giant rotator cuff tears and require restorative surgery or joint replacement depending on the specific situation, along with Chinese medicine intervention to achieve better results.
