Let’s talk today about rotator cuff injuries and motor vehicle accidents. A lot of times, these rotator cuff injuries, number one, they’re very serious because they oftentimes require surgery. Number two, they oftentimes involve a situation where the driver or the passenger has either hit their shoulder or their arm on the window or some portion of the inside part of the vehicle such as the door, or they actually, if it’s a driver, the driver may have had their hands and they locked or their arms in a locked position at the time of impact.
A rotator cuff injury is really a situation where the space between the rotator cuff and the upper portion of the shoulder has been narrow and it’s a very painful situation as far as, number one, limited movement and number two, just not being able to move without significant pain. The rotator cuff tendon actually, after such an accident, oftentimes rubs against the top of the shoulder and the rotator cuff itself. It’s that rubbing of the actual rotator cuff tendon which causes the extreme pain.
Initially, if you’ve had a rotator cuff injury, the physician will go ahead and prescribe cortisone shots and other anti-inflammatory remedies in order to alleviate the pain. If either the cortisone shots or the other anti-inflammatory medicines do not work then, there are two different types of rotator cuff surgery. One is a decompression surgery and the other one is just a full blown open rotator cuff surgery.
Depending on the extent of the injury and what the MRI will show on the result, the doctor will make that election and recommendation to you as to what type of surgery you should have. If you’ve been involved in a motor vehicle accident, car accident, or truck accident, any type of moving vehicle accident, and have sustained a rotator cuff injury and have questions about what should you do next, please call my office at 770-792-1000.