Rotator cuff disease may actually lead to a tear of the muscle, or just tendonitis.
Either way, individuals may end up complaining of shoulder pain, muscle weakness, or both.
The various disease problems that describe rotator cuff disease may include calcific tendonitis, cuff tendonitis, or partial or full thickness tears of one of the cuff muscles.
The most prominent tendon involved with a cuff tear is the supraspinatus muscle by far.
There are four separate muscles that combine to turn into the rotator cuff muscle, including the subscapularis, teres minor, infraspinatus, and the supraspinatus.
They all perform different functions, and overlap as well.
When evaluating rotator cuff disease, there is actually no one accepted classification scheme that orthopedic surgeons use.
This makes performing research difficult for comparison purposes.
If a cuff tear is acute, it often has significant associated pain and a functional problem after the associated trauma.
This may include a sports injury, maybe a fall from a height, or a motor vehicle accident.
Chronic cuff tears are those that have been in place for over three months and present with varying degrees of weakness and pain.
A tear may be complete, meaning it is "full thickness", or only part of the way through, termed "partial".
If a tear is partial, it may occur underneath on the joint side, or on the top part where the muscle's tendon sits under the bone called the acromion.
During movement, the tendon may rub up against that bone and end up leading to at first some fraying and then tearing.
Another situation may be a partial tearing inside the tendon itself, which is called an "intrasubstance" tear.
Rotator cuff tears are termed "small" (less than two cm in diameter), "medium" (two to four centimeters), or "large" (four to five centimeters).
If a tear is "massive" it is over five centimeters.
Interestingly, just because a tear is "massive" does not mean a patient will have significant pain and dysfunction.
I have seen pictures of patients with no pain and the ability to lift their arms way over their head with large or massive tears.
The best method of looking at the state of the cuff is to obtain an MRI.
It can display the extent of the tear, how much fatty replacement exists and can show how much tendon retraction exists, and with a partial tear show the extent of tendon involvement.
Patients who have larger cuff tears often have other glenohumeral joint issues as well.
A large research project of over 100 patients actually showed that three fourths of individuals had significant additional problems such as abral tears, biceps tears and cartilage defects.
Either way, individuals may end up complaining of shoulder pain, muscle weakness, or both.
The various disease problems that describe rotator cuff disease may include calcific tendonitis, cuff tendonitis, or partial or full thickness tears of one of the cuff muscles.
The most prominent tendon involved with a cuff tear is the supraspinatus muscle by far.
There are four separate muscles that combine to turn into the rotator cuff muscle, including the subscapularis, teres minor, infraspinatus, and the supraspinatus.
They all perform different functions, and overlap as well.
When evaluating rotator cuff disease, there is actually no one accepted classification scheme that orthopedic surgeons use.
This makes performing research difficult for comparison purposes.
If a cuff tear is acute, it often has significant associated pain and a functional problem after the associated trauma.
This may include a sports injury, maybe a fall from a height, or a motor vehicle accident.
Chronic cuff tears are those that have been in place for over three months and present with varying degrees of weakness and pain.
A tear may be complete, meaning it is "full thickness", or only part of the way through, termed "partial".
If a tear is partial, it may occur underneath on the joint side, or on the top part where the muscle's tendon sits under the bone called the acromion.
During movement, the tendon may rub up against that bone and end up leading to at first some fraying and then tearing.
Another situation may be a partial tearing inside the tendon itself, which is called an "intrasubstance" tear.
Rotator cuff tears are termed "small" (less than two cm in diameter), "medium" (two to four centimeters), or "large" (four to five centimeters).
If a tear is "massive" it is over five centimeters.
Interestingly, just because a tear is "massive" does not mean a patient will have significant pain and dysfunction.
I have seen pictures of patients with no pain and the ability to lift their arms way over their head with large or massive tears.
The best method of looking at the state of the cuff is to obtain an MRI.
It can display the extent of the tear, how much fatty replacement exists and can show how much tendon retraction exists, and with a partial tear show the extent of tendon involvement.
Patients who have larger cuff tears often have other glenohumeral joint issues as well.
A large research project of over 100 patients actually showed that three fourths of individuals had significant additional problems such as abral tears, biceps tears and cartilage defects.
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