Rotator Cuff Tears, Causes & Its Symptoms

Rotator cuff tear is one of the well-known problems associated with shoulder pain. Most of the people across the world suffer from pain and disability, which is caused by the rotator cuff problem. Due to torn rotator cuff, the shoulder gets weakened, it’s hard to carry out daily activities, and if it’s done, then it might be painful or difficult. There are several ways of treatment that are helpful in treating this problem. Physiotherapy is also one of the finest ways to do this. Rotator cuff tears exercises can play a significant role in early recovery.

Now let’s try to understand a little bit about the anatomy of the shoulder. Basically, the shoulder consists of three major bones - the first one is humorous, shoulder blade and clavicle. The joint that holds the upper arm with the shoulder blade is a kind of ball and socket joint. Now the concept of rotator cuff comes into the picture, it keeps the upper arm into the scapula. It’s generally a group of muscles which covers the head of the humerus so as to provide the attachment with a socket so as to lift and rotate the arm easily.

Rotator Cuff Tears Causes

Rotator cuff tears are of two types one is the partial and the second one is a full-thickness tear, and it’s occurred due to two basic reasons - injury and degeneration. Let’s have a close look at acute and degenerative causes.

Acute: 

It mainly occurs by outstretched arm or after lifting heavy items with a sudden jerk. However, by other shoulder injuries, this problem may arise, which may include the broken collarbone or dislocation of the shoulder.

Degenerative Tear:

By the passage of time, tendons become weakened, resulting in wearing down. If you feel the pain in one shoulder due to degeneration, then there might be chances of occurrence in the second one even if you have pain on that shoulder or not. There are several other factors that play an important role in the degenerative process. It includes - repetitive stress, lack of blood supply, bone spurs. In the context of repetitive stress, people who are engaged with sports and heavy weight lifting activities can have rotator cuff tears. Continuous shoulder motion can put stress on rotator cuff tendons, which further may get tearing.

Rotator Cuff Symptoms

There are a few symptoms associated with rotator cuff tears.

• Pain at rest or even at night when trying to lying on the impacted shoulder

• If you try to lift something heavy, you feel pain. Or if you try to lower your arm, perform specific movements, then you may have pain.

• While lifting or rotating, your arm weakness generally occurs

• Crackling while moving shoulder in a specific position.

Rotator Cuff Tears exercise

After a complete examination, Physiotherapy specialists can recommend some specific exercises which are beneficial for treating the rotator cuff tear problems. However, there are a few exercises that are good for tearing rotator cuff muscles. These include - pendulum swing, standing row, internal rotation, posterior stretch. It would be better to perform these exercises under the close observation of physiotherapy specialists.

Article Source: https://medium.com/@lilymosebi/rotator-cuff-tears-causes-its-symptoms-fae38e4b5a84