Tendon rupture

Tendonous Petal Rupture

Tendonous petal is the tendon that surrounds the head of the humerus and is essentially responsible for the movement of the shoulder.

A group of 3 Shoulder Muscles, the Supraspinatus, the Subspinatus, and the Teres Minor, which perform the movement of external rotation and abduction, have a common tendon attachment to the Greater Brachial Tract, which is referred to in the international bibliography as the Rotator Cuff, Greek Tendonius Petalo. This complex of Tendons often suffers injuries or degenerative changes and often tears (ruptures).

Symptoms

Common symptoms include:

Pain at rest and pain during the night that often wakes the patient, especially when lying on the side of the affected shoulder
Pain with arm movements, especially with raising the upper limb
Inability to raise the upper limb in cases of complete rupture
Sometimes a creaking sensation during rotational movements of the upper limb

Imaging Tests

For diagnosis, in addition to the clinical examination, we usually perform the following tests:

Shoulder X-rays
Shoulder MRI.

Tendonous Petal Rupture

Treatment

The goal of treatment is to reduce pain and improve functionality. In general, treatment can be conservative or surgical.

Conservative treatment

In approximately 50% of patients, conservative treatment relieves the patient from pain and improves functionality to satisfactory levels. However, in complete tears, muscle strength is usually not restored.

Conservative treatment includes:

Rest:
Activity modification: avoid movements that cause pain.
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
Physical therapy program:
Steroid injection: if the above measures do not improve symptoms, injection of local anesthetic and cortisone into the subacromial space can relieve pain for a long time.

The advantage of conservative treatment is the avoidance of the risks of surgery, such as inflammation, stiffness, and a prolonged recovery period.

The disadvantages of conservative treatment are the risk of damage spreading over time, the limitation of the patient’s activities for a long period of time and the permanent loss of muscle strength.

Surgical treatment

The procedures for repairing rotator cuff tears are divided into open sutures and arthroscopic sutures. The long-term results are similar, however, with the arthroscopic technique, recovery and return to full activities are faster, postoperative pain is less and the aesthetic result (smaller incisions) is clearly superior to open methods.