Shoulder Injuries: The shoulder is a complex ball and socket joint with the greatest range of motion than any other joints in the human body. It is also the most moveable joint in the human body that can rotate, lift and turn your arm in versatile directions. While its unique construction gives it a superior range of motion, it also makes it the most unstable joint in the human body.
Shoulder injuries are the most common injuries experienced by athletes who repeatedly perform intensive shoulder movement above their shoulder height (Cricket, Basketball, rugby). The intensive and repetitive shoulder movements can sometimes make the shoulder prone to a versatile set of shoulder injuries. However, there are two specific shoulder injuries that are most commonly treated at our Joint and Sports Clinic in Surat. Read on to know about them:
Two Most Common Shoulder Injuries Treated by Dr. Chirag Patel
1. Rotator Cuff Injuries:
The rotator cuff is made up of 4 muscles and tendons that help you rotate and raise your arm while keeping the shoulder joint stable and secure. So every time you raise or rotate your arm you are using your rotator cuff to perform the action.
Causes of Rotator Cuff Injuries:
Young athletes whose sports include intense and repetitive overhead motions or general workmen like painters whose job entails raising their arm for prolonged periods are more susceptible to the rotator cuff injuries. There are three types of rotator cuff injuries:
- Tendinitis: Caused by inflammation resulted due to overuse of rotator cuff (tennis players, painters). Can progress to rotator cuff tear when not treated by an orthopaedic doctor.
- Bursitis: Minor injuries and shoulder overuse cause the inflammation of fluid sacs near the tendons resulting in Bursitis. It can progress over time weakening the shoulder joint.
- Tears and strains: The tendons that connect muscle and bone can tear and strain due to injury, causing acute to intense pain.
Muscle weakness, painful and limited range of motion, impaired function are some of the symptoms of rotator cuff injuries. Physiotherapy, pain management using medications, and surgical intervention at our Joints and Sports Clinic in Surat by Dr. Chirag Patel depending on the severity of the rotator cuff injury in the athletes.
2. Shoulder Instability:
As said earlier the muscles, tendons, ligaments safely stabilize the shoulder joint until they are made not to, due to an injury or any congenital defects. The instability of the joint can cause loose joints which result in subluxation (partial dislocation) to complete shoulder dislocation. This instability of the shoulder joint can occur at the front (anterior shoulder instability) or the back (posterior shoulder instability) and sometimes even both. However anterior shoulder instability happens to be the most common injury suffered by athletes as the shoulder is at its weakest in the front.
Causes of Shoulder Instability:
- Intensive & repetitive strain: Sometimes overuse of shoulder for repetitive overhead movements can loosen the shoulder joints leading to an unstable one in the long run.
- Shoulder dislocation: Prior traumatic injury that resulted in shoulder dislocation may further affect the surrounding ligaments and tendons causing recurrent shoulder instability problems.
- Multidirectional instability: Sometimes even in normal cases, the patients who possess loose joints from birth often suffer shoulder stability issues.
Sudden pain, swelling numbness or discoloration, impaired shoulder function, deformed shoulder are some of the symptoms of shoulder instability problems. Young athletes often experience minor instability problems are successfully treated with physiotherapy and pain medications by Dr. Chirag Patel at our Joints and Sports Clinic at Surat. In case the patient experience severe instability problems surgical techniques are also used to relieve the pain and get rid of shoulder instability problems.
If you are still suffering from shoulder problems and live in and around Surat, Dr. Chirag Patel is the Best Orthopaedic Surgeon in Surat who can treat and cure your shoulder problems successfully. You can contact him here: Dr Chirag Patel