A rotator cuff injury is a tear or inflammation of the rotator cuff tendons in the shoulder. A rotator cuff injury is a painful strain in the tendons and muscles surrounding your shoulder joint. Your rotator cuff is made up of four muscles and their attached tendons. The muscles connect your upper arm bone (humerus) with your shoulder blade. They also help hold the ball of your upper arm bone firmly in your shoulder socket, as though holding a golf ball on a tee. The combination results in the greatest range of motion of any joint in your body.

As you get older, your risk of a rotator cuff injury increases. Causes of the injury may include poor posture, falling, lifting and repetitive overhead arm activities. These may include throwing a baseball, reaching up to work on a car on a rack or placing items on shelves above your head. The injury is also common among people whose jobs or hobbies include heavy demands on their shoulders, such as athletes and people in the construction trades.

Screening and diagnosis

If your injury appears to be severe or your doctor can't determine the cause of your pain through physical examination, he or she may recommend diagnostic imaging tests to better delineate your shoulder joint, muscles and tendons. These may include:

• X-rays

• A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan

• An ultrasound

• An arthrogram, a special type of X-ray in which dye is injected into the shoulder joint before the X-ray is taken in order to enhance the image of the joint

Rotator cuff injury > 1 > 2 > 3 > 4

 

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