Musba Hashmi speaks with DR DEEPAK CHOUDHARY about rotator cuff tear and how it is different from a frozen shoulder
For many people it is a normal shoulder pain, not to be worried about. But when the pain gets prolonged it evokes a sense of alarm. While many doctors treat it as a mere frozen shoulder but it is not the case everytime.
Dr Deepak Choudhary, Director, Arthroscopy and Sports Medicine, BLK Hospitals who is handling such cases from a long time and is credited with performing over 12,000 complex knee and shoulder surgeries says this pain can be because of rotator cuff tear which is often confused with frozen shoulder.
“Many people ignore the pain for a long time, but when the pain persists they consult a doctor, who then treat it as a frozen shoulder. Patients undergo steroid shots in the shoulder and sessions of physiotherapy, without much relief. But, not everytime shoulder pain signifies frozen shoulder. Sometimes it can be rotator cuff tear. In this condition, the tendon gets torn which result in pain,” he tells you. Timely detection in such cases is the key.
“A lot of patients come for the right treatment at a very late stage. Therefore, they may require surgery, but if a timely detection is done, then it can also be cured through steroid injection and physiotherapy too. A latest treatment in curing the condition at an early stage is Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection, in which a patient’s own blood is withdrawn and and the growth factors are centrifuged and injected into the affected area thereby resulting in healing,” he explains.
There are various reasons that can lead to the condition. “Different reasons can lead to tear of the tendon. It may happen while working out, playing sports, doing household chores, due to accidents, improper exercise and in the elderly it can be due to the age-factor. With age, the bone start getting weak, tendons get abrade and the pressure on them increases which results in swelling and pain in the shoulder,” he tells you and adds that gym and yoga should be done under proper supervision to avoid this condition from happening.
“Recently we saw a case of rotator cuff tear in a young national level wrestler from Haryana. Hemant, suffered a shoulder injury last year during a wrestling competition and he took steroids to relieve the pain. The pain continued and got worsened and he was unable to move his hand. Then on a family member’s advice he came to us for the right treatment. He underwent minimal invasive Arthroscopic surgery and is doing perfectly fine since then. He has now started doing wrestling again,” he says.
Proper awareness regarding the condition is necessary so that patients can go for the right treatment without delay. “Lack of awareness is the reason why some patients are misguided and are not diagnosed with the condition at the right time. They keep on taking the wrong treatment which results in further degeneration of the tendon. So, proper awareness along with timely detection is the key to treat this condition,” he tells you.
