# Docs ... some info. on rotator cuff tears, please. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 3, 2007, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/docs-some-info-on-rotator-cuff-tears-please/398573 "2007-04-03T16:33:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2007, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/docs-some-info-on-rotator-cuff-tears-please/398573/1 "2007-04-03T16:33:27Z")
My mother had a recent arm injury–my father (80) was falling and she (67) reached out to catch him. She heard/felt something bad happen in her upper arm. She was in severe pain for a couple of days, but a month later, felt back to normal, had no muscle weakness, loss of ROM, etc. But, since both she and my father are retired medical professionals, she went to the doctor. (Due to various snowstorms, etc., a month was the earliest point that she could get out to an orthopod.) The doctor examined her, found nothing wrong, thought maybe she had torn her biceps a little–nothing to worry about. To be safe, though, they scheduled an MRI. After the MRI came back, the doc said, “Oh–you have a full-thickness rotator cuff tear. Can we do surgery next week?” Well, there’s no way that my parents can schedule any surgery that quickly–in addition to my father’s care and mobility issues, my mother’s on her own little raft of drugs, some of which she needs to step off of prior to any surgery. So she went for a second opinion. Second doctor also says she needs surgery, but he won’t perform it until she gets sign-off from all of her other doctors. Furthermore, he’s (a) not sure that the rotator cuff tear is even from this most recent incident–it could just be from years of degeneration–and (b) if it’s an old injury, he may not even be able to repair it (but he won’t be able to tell until he goes in arthroscopically). Since I saw her last (when she was perfectly able to lift objects, raise her arms over her head, reach behind her back, etc.), I saw my father-in-law, who had just had rotator cuff surgery the week before. Prior to his surgery, he had almost zero use of his arm. Same deal with his OTHER shoulder surgery a few years earlier–massive loss of ROM. THIS was someone who needed rotator cuff repair. My mother doesn’t seem to be in the same league. So now my mother and I are wondering, if she has no pain, no weakness, and no decreased range of motion … why bother with the surgery, which has many risks and drawbacks for someone of her age, health, and home situation? The only thing we’re worried about is that NOT repairing it now may greatly increase the risk of some massive injury/loss of function somewhere down the line, where she would (a) not be able to schedule the surgery so neatly (b) have much poorer repair options once the Dr. opened her up and © would have a much worse recovery. Can any MDs shed some light on this? Is foregoing the elective surgery just asking for greater trouble down the line? Or, in contrast, is it instead stupid to do surgery in the first place if she has no current symptoms? ---
**Author:** ![Sofaspud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8491ac/32.png) [@Sofaspud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofaspud)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2007, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/docs-some-info-on-rotator-cuff-tears-please/398573/2 "2007-04-03T18:23:45Z")
Ok, first off, IANAD. At all. BUT. I tore my right rotator cuff pretty badly about six years ago. It hurt like hell at first, and within a week or two I felt back to normal. I went in, had the X-rays and MRI, and the doc said I had two options: I could go for surgery (his recommendation), or I could wait and see how it turned out (my wallet’s recommendation). I didn’t have the surgery. Now, here’s the catch: while I didn’t _feel_ like I had any decrease in my motion and there was no pain, etc., I actually ended up having quite a few problems. The biggest one I noticed was that my lifting, throwing, and carrying power were all _gone_. Normal weights (like groceries, etc) were no problem, but for no explicable reason I’d suddenly be unable to carry weight with that arm and _bam_ everything would fall to the floor. If I tried to lift a heavy weight, I couldn’t. It wasn’t painful, really, it just felt like there was no muscle there to ‘tug’ with, if you know what I mean. And throwing anything? Pfeh. I used to have a 80mph fastball (was damn proud of it too!) Up until this past year I couldn’t crack 50, and even now I’m barely hitting 60 with any regularity. I couldn’t even throw well enough to skip rocks on the pond, at first. None of this really affected my life, except when it came to moving or helping friends move, or trying to throw a baseball (heh), but it was a pretty awful realization all the same. I felt broken for a long time. That said, after 3 years of pushing myself, I healed well enough to be able to skip rocks and haul things again without worrying that I’d drop everything, and now, 6 years later, I’m starting to see an improvement in my fastball again. Surgery probably would have fixed me essentially right away, but in my opinion, it’s not absolutely necessary, if you get my drift. ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2007, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/docs-some-info-on-rotator-cuff-tears-please/398573/3 "2007-04-03T18:42:05Z")
[QUOTE=Sofaspud] Ok, first off, IANAD. At all. BUT. I tore my right rotator cuff pretty badly about six years ago. It hurt like hell at first, and within a week or two I felt back to normal. I went in, had the X-rays and MRI, and the doc said I had two options: I could go for surgery (his recommendation), or I could wait and see how it turned out (my wallet’s recommendation). I didn’t have the surgery. Now, here’s the catch: while I didn’t _feel_ like I had any decrease in my motion and there was no pain, etc., I actually ended up having quite a few problems. The biggest one I noticed was that my lifting, throwing, and carrying power were all _gone_. Normal weights (like groceries, etc) were no problem, but for no explicable reason I’d suddenly be unable to carry weight with that arm and _bam_ everything would fall to the floor. If I tried to lift a heavy weight, I couldn’t. It wasn’t painful, really, it just felt like there was no muscle there to ‘tug’ with, if you know what I mean. And throwing anything? Pfeh. I used to have a 80mph fastball (was damn proud of it too!) Up until this past year I couldn’t crack 50, and even now I’m barely hitting 60 with any regularity. I couldn’t even throw well enough to skip rocks on the pond, at first. None of this really affected my life, except when it came to moving or helping friends move, or trying to throw a baseball (heh), but it was a pretty awful realization all the same. I felt broken for a long time. That said, after 3 years of pushing myself, I healed well enough to be able to skip rocks and haul things again without worrying that I’d drop everything, and now, 6 years later, I’m starting to see an improvement in my fastball again. Surgery probably would have fixed me essentially right away, but in my opinion, it’s not absolutely necessary, if you get my drift. [/QUOTE] Just out of curiosity, how old are you, Spud? ---
**Author:** ![Sofaspud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8491ac/32.png) [@Sofaspud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofaspud)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2007, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/docs-some-info-on-rotator-cuff-tears-please/398573/4 "2007-04-03T18:43:14Z")
[QUOTE=toadspittle] Just out of curiosity, how old are you, Spud? [/QUOTE] 29 as of last month. I should have pointed that out, sorry; if I had been older at the time, I probably would have opted for the surgery. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![conurepete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@conurepete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/conurepete)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2007, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/docs-some-info-on-rotator-cuff-tears-please/398573/5 "2007-04-04T00:35:53Z")
I am no Doc, but I have met patients with rotator cuff tears discovered with MRI’s ( MRI’s for many reasons, not always rotator cuff related). That means the sometimes the cuff may have been torn long before the MRI, and only just been noticed. I feel a problem that causes no problems is no problem. What about getting a PT eval, have them test for functional problems