SHOULDER SURGERY
The latest research is showing that exercise-based “pre hab” with a Physiotherapist can determine whether a specific exercise program can actually have a better outcome.
IS SHOULDER SURGERY / ROTATOR CUFF SURGERY THE ANSWER?
Pain or injury in the upper limb can be quite debilitating. Rotator Cuff degeneration or tears are often blamed for shoulder pain, yet many people are able to use their shoulders very well with “torn” rotator cuffs on scans.
Shoulder impingement syndrome accounts for 70% of all shoulder problems (Mitchell et. al 2005). Common contributing factors include tendons of the rotator cuff or irritation of bursae (“bursitis”). While surgery to remove bone lipping, bursa, and/or releasing ligaments was common there was a ten-fold increase from 2500 surgeries a year to 21,000 a year over 10 years in England alone. (Judge et al 2014)
Recent ground-breaking research (Beard et al 2017, Schreurs 2018) showed there was no difference between surgery, “fake” surgery & no surgery.
Research Findings
Corticosteroid injections (CSI) may provide short-term relief.- However there is also mounting concerns regarding damaging effects of CSIs on tendon health (Dean 2014).
- A quality review of the published research showed physiotherapy just as effective (Camarinos 2009).
- In fact, surgery was no better than physiotherapy treatment involving education, advice and exercise (Camarinos 2009, Babatunde 2017).
- A recent study on exercise treatment for shoulder pain showed Clinical Pilates to be more effective than general exercise in helping to reduce pain and disability (Atiglan 2017).
- Ongoing, shoulder pain can often be related to the nerves from the neck travelling into the shoulder & arm. A thorough assessment of a shoulder problem MUST include the neck, especially if there is pain in the arm (“sciatica” of the arm) (Slaven and Mathers 2010).