Blog for Panorama Orthopedics
Wear and tear leads many to battle rotator cuff pain
Doctor’s visits can be overwhelming. Unless you’re an anatomy specialist, it can be hard to follow all the references to different muscles, bones and tendons.
If you’re suffering from shoulder pain, you might be in the market for a simple explanation of a rotator cuff.
In a way, it’s like a wheel with spokes.
There are four muscles that are connected by tendons from your shoulder blade to your upper arm bone, which serves as the hub in our analogy. Each of the muscles, which are like spokes, allow you to pull your arm in a different direction. Together, this “wheel” is the rotator cuff. The large deltoid muscle covers the rotator cuff like a hubcap.
Each muscle and tendon has a unique function, but they work together to stabilize our shoulders and allow us to move our arms.
Like the wheels on our cars, we put a lot of miles on our rotator cuffs. Unfortunately, rotator cuff disease is a common problem, especially on the top part of the shoulder.
“So much of what we do involves lifting, it involves using our arm over our head, it involves pulling and tugging,” explains Dr. Douglas A. Foulk with the Panorama Orthopedics & Spine Center in Golden. “We all do things that have the ability to hurt our rotator cuff.”
In some cases, trauma is the cause of the problem. Often, it’s simply a matter of wear and tear.
As Dr. Foulk told a group of patients at a recent seminar, “You don’t really recognize the tread on the tires of your car getting thin, until you take it into the guy to get some work and they tell you, ‘You know your wear line is at the wear line,’ and you say, ‘Seriously? I didn’t realize I’d driven 25,000 miles.’”
Foulk and his colleagues at Panorama can conduct a series of tests to help determine the cause if you are suffering from shoulder pain.
“This is a topic that we all know very well and we all treat frequently,” he said.
The information on this site is purely informational and may not pertain to your specific ailment. It should not be taken in lieu of a doctor's advice!
