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Are you suffering from a shoulder injury? Visit your West Covina and Los Angeles, CA, physicians of Samimi Orthopaedic Group to receive the best health care.

What is the shoulder rotator cuff tear?

A rotator cuff is a set of muscles and tendons surrounding your shoulder. A tear or injury may occur to these muscles and tendons, causing what’s called the shoulder rotator cuff tear.

What are the causes of the shoulder rotator cuff tear?

Rotator cuff tear can result from a sudden injury in your shoulder or a progressive degeneration and wearing down of the tendons in the area. Repetitive activity and heavy shoulder exercises may cause tendons damage. This is commonly seen in athletes. The progressive degeneration of the tendons is the result of aging.

What are the signs of the rotator cuff tear?

The most obvious sign that you have a rotator cuff tear is pain. The pain will be concentrated in the affected shoulder, and it will increase when you are resting, lying down, or sleeping. The pain will also increase and become accompanied by weakness when you move your injured arm up or down.

When the tear results from a sudden injury, the associated pain may appear more intensive and disabling. If the tear develops slowly with age, the pain will start as a mild pain that can be treated using over-the-counter pain killers, and then it will keep worsening until it becomes moderate or severe.

How is the shoulder rotator cuff tear treated?

Pain killers, steroid injections, physical therapy, and stretching exercises are non-surgical treatment options that most patients achieve a full shoulder recovery after trying.

In severe cases, the patient might not improve with the non-surgical treatments, making the surgical intervention a necessity.

The minimally invasive surgery will repair the tear, reduce the pain, and restore the shoulder strength and movement. This outpatient procedure is performed in our West Covina and Los Angeles, CA, offices and takes only two to three hours.

Contact us

If you are looking for orthopaedists in West Covina or Los Angeles, CA, our qualified physicians at Samimi Orthopaedic Group are ready to help. Call (626) 338-7391 for our West Covina, CA, office and (310) 606-2156 for our Los Angeles, CA, office.