How is a torn rotator cuff muscle repaired?

Question

Greetings
One person I know was suffering from a torn rotator cuff from professional stress and the other person suffered damage from a fall.

What ever happens.... and how is the damage repaired.....briefly? Thank you!

Answer 1

Briefly, it is repaired by sewing the muscle and its fascia back together, followed by extensive rehab of the shoulder. This is often done through a scope these days, but mine was done with an open operation.

Answer 2

The rotator cuff is a group of tendons that eminate from muscles that attach to various parts of the shoulder blade. The tendons from these muscles gradually blend together to form a sheet of tendons that evenually insert onto part of the head of the humerus (the upper arm bone). Therefore, the rotator cuff is at least partially reponsible for cordinating movements between the shoulder and the arm.

Imagine a piece of baloon that is stretched...now imagine that someone cuts part of that baloon...part of it will retract. This is sort of what happens when someone tears their rotator cuff.

During sugery, the surgeon must take the part that is retracted and bring it back to it's original state and sew and anchor is back together. Very often, they need to use anchors that look like little screws or thumbtacks to secure the cuff back to the humerus.

This is an oversimplification of the process, but gives one the general idea.

Answer 3

The surgery I am aware of takes a large muscle from the back and stretches it to the front, stapled to the bone, to replace the rotator muscle.