{"id":3581,"date":"2021-01-19T01:23:44","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T01:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alineaperformance.com\/cincinnati\/?p=3581"},"modified":"2021-01-19T01:23:44","modified_gmt":"2021-01-19T01:23:44","slug":"rotator-cuff-tear-on-mri-but-i-want-to-avoid-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alineaperformance.com\/cincinnati\/rotator-cuff-tear-on-mri-but-i-want-to-avoid-surgery\/","title":{"rendered":"Rotator Cuff Tear on MRI But I Want To Avoid Surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Rotator Cuff Tear on MRI But I Want To AVOID Surgery\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uvhJJ-NoFxo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>So you started having shoulder pain, you saw a physician and it says there is a rotator cuff tear on the MRI and you want to avoid surgery. You\u2019re worried because you have a lot of questions and not a lot of answers.\u00a0 A common question I get in the clinic with shoulders is, <strong>\u201cWill this rotator cuff tear get better without surgery?\u201d<\/strong>. I\u2019m here to tell you that most of the time it can!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What does a <strong>rotator cuff tear on MRI mean?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>So let me start by saying that imaging can be a little biased. It is human nature to want a clear reason for why we are hurting, so when we hear that the MRI shows a tear, our mind naturally puts two and two together thinking that this must be the problem. But the truth is there are a number of people walking around with rotator cuff tears every day and have no idea because it is not causing them any pain.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now what this tells us is that a tear is not correlated to pain and just because you have pain, does not mean there is a tear.&nbsp; There are a number of people with shoulder pain that have absolutely nothing abnormal on an MRI, and are frustrated because they can\u2019t get an answer to why they are in so much pain.&nbsp; An image is just one single snapshot. It does not see what is happening while you move.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What about the rotator cuff pain?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Pain is also multifactorial and very complex. As I mentioned, we have found that there is not much correlation between what is shown on an image and someone\u2019s pain. We do know however that being told something is broken, torn, ruptured, etc from a medical provider or being told to not do something or move a certain way DOES correlate very highly with pain.\u00a0 That\u2019s because pain is a response.\u00a0 One that is based on your personal past experiences or perceived threats that get finely tuned in the brain. We are naturally hard-wired to demand an explanation of pain, so when we are told about an abnormal finding on an MRI, we think that having surgery to \u201cfix it\u201d is the answer, but a lot of incredible studies show otherwise.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What does the research say about a rotator cuff tear on MRI and physical therapy?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A recent study, published in 2016 compared physical therapy to rotator cuff repairs as far as pain levels and function 1 year later. There was no clinically significant difference between surgery and active physical therapy at the 1-year follow-up.\u00a0 They both had a very similar reduction in pain and improvement in shoulder function.\u00b9 This study was a meta-analysis study, which is a fancy way of saying a study that looked at a lot of research articles, so it\u2019s not just one study that is showing this, but multiple ones that are all saying the same thing.\u00a0 And what they\u2019re showing is that; physical therapy is significantly less expensive than surgery and has significantly less risk for complications; therefore, it is advocated to take this route for treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What do we know about rotator cuff tear treatment?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>So what do we know so far? We now know that an MRI doesn\u2019t show the full picture AND physical therapy can not only reduce your pain, but can get you out of pain and improve function without the added risks, time off work, or stress that comes with major surgery.\u00a0 Not to mention, the follow-up care that comes with surgery which is going to include physical therapy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What can you do for your shoulder pain?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>So whether you have had an MRI or not, a skilled physical therapist is able to tell if you will be able to get out of pain and reach your goals after a thorough evaluation. They will take a look at your needs and goals, do a thorough examination of your shoulder and assess your movements in order to come up with an extremely effective treatment plan.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So if you have a rotator cuff tear or just dealing with some shoulder pain reach out to a physical therapist first for treatment!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So you started having shoulder pain, you saw a physician and it says there is a rotator cuff tear on the MRI and you want to avoid surgery. You\u2019re worried because you have a lot of questions and not a lot of answers.\u00a0 A common question I get in the clinic with shoulders is, \u201cWill [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":3627,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_breakdance_hide_in_design_set":false,"_breakdance_tags":"","two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27],"post_folder":[172],"class_list":["post-3581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shoulder","tag-avoid-rotator-cuff-surgery","tag-avoid-shoulder-surgery","tag-physical-therapy-vs-surgery","tag-physical-therapy-vs-surgery-rotator-cuff-tear","tag-rotator-cuff-injury-treatment","tag-rotator-cuff-pain-symptoms","tag-rotator-cuff-tear","tag-rotator-cuff-tear-heal-without-surgery","tag-rotator-cuff-tear-on-mri","tag-rotator-cuff-tear-pain","tag-rotator-cuff-tear-physical-therapy","tag-rotator-cuff-treatment","tag-shoulder-mri-rotator-cuff-tear"],"acf":{"career_location_display":"","career_employment_type":"","career_schedule":"","job_type":"","job_mission":"","about_the_role":"","professional_life":"","required_skills":"","clinicial_excellence":"","success_looks":"<ul>\r\n \t<li>You confidently evaluate and build plans of care<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Patients rave about their experience<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Outcomes and retention stay high<\/li>\r\n \t<li>You elevate clinic culture<\/li>\r\n \t<li>You pursue advanced training<\/li>\r\n \t<li>You help grow the brand<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","application_embed_form":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alineaperformance.com\/cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3581"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alineaperformance.com\/cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alineaperformance.com\/cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alineaperformance.com\/cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alineaperformance.com\/cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alineaperformance.com\/cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alineaperformance.com\/cincinnati\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alineaperformance.com\/cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alineaperformance.com\/cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alineaperformance.com\/cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3581"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alineaperformance.com\/cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=3581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}