Rotator Cuff
A rotator cuff tear occurs when the structure of the rotator cuff gets so bad that it wears a hole through the rotator cuff tendon. Since the tendon is what connects the rotator cuff muscle to your humerus bone, when the tendon is torn, you have weakness in the shoulder.
Usually these tears occur in people who have had shoulder pain for some time (called a "chronic rotator cuff tear"). This is, by far, the most common type of rotator cuff tear. Rotator cuff tears usually cause the symptoms as pain, particularly with overhead activities, weakness,and with prolonged disise, stifness. Most patients with tears of the rotator cuff complain of difficulty sleeping on the shoulder at night.
The torn rotator cuff cannot repair itself.
Treatment of small rotator cuff tears include medication to help relieve the pain.. Judicious use of steroid injection into the subacromial space may be given to help releive the pain.
It is critical to regain the motion lost as a consequence of having this tear of the cuff muscle/tendon. Regaining motion doesn't just improve your mobility, it can often decrease your pain as well. Strengthening the other muscles of the rotator cuff that are not torn can help to compensate for the torn muscle. Hence , physiotherapists play a key role in the management of this disorder.
Sometimes, if all this fails to relieve your pain, rotator cuff repair surgery might be needed to re-attach the torn tendon. As these torn tendons cannot heal on its own accord, surgical repair is indicated in symptomatic and mechanically disabling rotator cuff tears.
Such procedures are best undertaken early, as late repairs can be more complicated and less successful. Tears sometimes happen in people who do not have a history of shoulder problems. For example, the rotator cuff can tear when injury causes the shoulder to dislocate or when people try to lift something that is too heavy and feel a pop in their shoulder, usually with immediate pain (this is called an "acute rotator cuff tear"). The treatment for such an acute tear may involve early repair of the tendons.