This week we'll cover some of the basic information of the Rotator Cuff.
First of all let's get the name correct. It is termed the 'Rotator Cuff', not 'Rotary Cuff', not 'Rotator Cup', or as my dearly departed grandmother would continue to say no matter how many times I corrected her, not the 'Rotary Cup'.
The Rotator Cuff is a group of four muscles that originate from your shoulder blade and insert on your humerus (upper arm bone). That's all it is, nothing more, nothing less. As the name indicates it causes your shoulder to rotate both inward across your body and outward away from you body. There is more to the biomechanics of how this all works, but we'll cover that later this week.
A rotator cuff injury occurs from either a specific traumatic event to the shoulder, or from degeneration over time. The most common traumatic event that can injure the rotator cuff is falling directly on the shoulder. Also overhead activities, such as throwing, can injure a rotator cuff. Much like the name suggests, a degenerative tear occurs as we age or overuse our cuff, causing it to degenerate over time. One study I read a number of years ago stated that by the time we are 50 years old, 50% of us will have some degeneration of our rotator cuff. As each year passes that percentage raises along with our age, meaning that by the time we're 60 years old, 60% will have degeneration, 75 years old, 75%, and so on.
There are a number of signs and symptoms that indicate when a rotator cuff is torn, but the main factor that leads to a rotator cuff needing to be repaired surgically is pain that limits your ability to sleep. People can often function well with a torn rotator cuff, especially with proper rehab, but the pain that occurs at night in the shoulder is often an indicator that surgery may be needed to repair the injury.
As stated earlier, with proper rehabilitation, a rotator cuff may be able to regain good function and cause minimal symptoms. As we will talk about in the next article, regaining proper biomechanics of the shoulder joint is imperative to regaining function and decreasing symptoms.
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