Medical Questions » Arms Questions » Question No. 1078
| Question: | Recently one of my friends hurt his shoulder while playing football and underwent surgery for that. He had rotator cuff injuries. I wonder what rotator cuff is and how it is related to the shoulder. Can you explain in detail? Any help will be appreciated. |
| Answer: | Rotator cuff is one of the most important parts of the shoulder occurring at the shoulder joint. The shoulder joint is responsible for connecting the upper arm to the upper part of the body. Rotator cuff consists of a group of four tendons and muscles that stabilize the shoulder joint. The rotator cuff muscles particularly stabilize the back of the shoulder joint. Various ligaments (attaches bone to bone) are also responsible for stabilizing the shoulder joint especially in the front side.
The rotator cuff muscles help in moving the shoulder in specific direction and hence provide the ability to raise your arm and reach overhead.
Rotator cuff injuries are one of the most common injuries to shoulder. Some sports require a lot of shoulder rotation like bowling in cricket or swimming and thus put excessive strain on the rotator cuff muscles. Sudden and powerful movement may result in rotator cuff injury like your friend had. Sometimes, a simple act like rolling over in bed may lead to rotator cuff injury.
Rotator cuff injuries include inflammation of the muscle (without any permanent damage) like tendinitis and partial or complete tear of the rotator cuff muscles/tendons, when surgery might be essential. Surgical outcome is often good except in the cases when tear is very extensive (rare). |
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