Your shoulder is a ball-and-socket joint made up of three dominant bones—the humerus, clavicle and scapula. The rotator cuff consists of a group of four tendons and associated muscles that collectively work to keep the arm bone within the socket of your shoulder blade while allowing your arm to raise and rotate. Although damage to […]
The biceps tendon runs from the biceps muscle through the rotator cuff and into the shoulder joint, where it then attaches to the socket. If the biceps tendon becomes inflamed or irritated, a condition called bicep tendinopathy, you may need to undergo surgery called biceps tenodesis to relieve the discomfort. Overuse of the tendon from […]
Now that the golf off-season has arrived, it is the best possible time to improve your game. That may sound counterintuitive, but consider this—core and muscle strength, flexibility and endurance are the keys to a more effective and consistent golf swing, and what better time to improve these aspects of your personal fitness than when […]
The four muscles that constitute the rotator cuff wrap around the shoulder joint, helping guide the shoulder through its range of motions while simultaneously providing stability to the joint. At the ends of these four muscles are tendons, which attach to the humerus, or upper arm bone. If the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) your doctor […]
Surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff is often a last-resort treatment, one that requires extensive rehabilitation to return your shoulder to full range of motion without pain. For most people, full recovery will take from 4 to 6 months, depending upon the reason for the surgery, the type of surgery and the patient’s level […]
When rotator cuff surgery is needed, the surgeon has to take into consideration whether or not fatty infiltration has occurred. Ideally, the surgeon can perform the surgery at an early enough stage before fatty infiltration becomes an issue. What is fatty infiltration? Sometimes, when the rotator cuff tendons have significantly pulled away from the bone […]
Because so many joints, tendons and muscles come together at the shoulder to create a wide range of motion, the shoulder is vulnerable to multiple conditions that can cause pain. The most common source of pain in the shoulder is the rotator cuff. Depending on your situation, the pain may be treated with decompression surgery, […]
The shoulder is a complicated joint. It moves very freely, unlike a knee or elbow, because it has less bony stability. Instead, the surrounding muscles provide stability. Those muscles must be strong to help prevent injury—but injuries do happen. One of the most common shoulder injuries is impingement syndrome. The supraspinatus muscle, part of the […]
If you have already gone through rotator cuff surgery, the last thing you want to think about is doing it all over again. Unfortunately, many patients do suffer tears of the same tendons that caused them to need surgery in the first place. Most of the time, this is not the surgeon’s fault, nor does […]
Your rotator cuff is a collection of muscles and tendons located where your upper arm meets your shoulder socket. Its primary purpose is to provide structural support to your body so that you can perform a wide range of arm movements, especially ones that involve overhead motion. These include manual labor activities—painting and carpentry, for […]