Labrum tear help

[crazyjack]

hey like i said i have a labrum tear
has anyone had this injury?
how did it turn out?
did u have surgery?
if yes do u reject it or are u happy with it?

[angieliu]

I have a labrum tear in my shoulder, very small one and it has contributed to my shoulder instability. I am going down the path of conservative treatment. My specialist always opts for conservative treatment before considering any sort of surgery. So unless it is a very big tear I would go for conservative treatment and see how it goes. Surgery can be painful and also there is also lots of physiotherapy afterwards.

See what the specialist says and if you aren't happy with their advice a second opinion can't harm.

[crazyjack]

thx
i think that i will probley have to have surgery because i am already on anti-inflamitory and doing strenghting before i was told that i have a tear

[angieliu]

thx
i think that i will probley have to have surgery because i am already on anti-inflamitory and doing strenghting before i was told that i have a tear

Well I guess with strengthening work it takes a longer period of time. My specialist said that I would be doing it for at least 6 months if not longer and I am quite happy with that because I have noticed a significant improvement since I began rehab. Just make sure that you find out how long you will be out of action if you are going for surgery, how invasive it is (because the shoulder muscles are complex) and how long you expect to be in rehab afterwards.

[grebnehtor]

how did you figure out that you had a "small" tear?

[angieliu]

By a series of deduction with consultation with physios and the specialist. My conclusion.. shoulders are tricky.

Also my understanding is with MRI's that they tend to pick up big tears rather than small ones and the smaller ones are normally diagnosed with the patients clinical history rather than with scans.

[crazyjack]

my MRI came out that i have fluid in my should and a torn labrum
so does that mean i have a large tear?

[Tennisgrl]

I'm having arthroscopic surgery for a labrum tear in two weeks. I'm anxious to hear about the post-surgery recovery. What can I expect immediately after the surgery, as well as the long haul?

Thanks!

[ranga]

I had arthroscopic surgery in late October to repair a labrum tear and was in a sling for 6 weeks following the op. The pain was reasonably strong for the first 12 hours after the op but easily managed with painkillers. I was out of hospital the following day. I must admit i have been relatively lazy with my physiotherapy after my surgeon told me i shouldn't play contact sports again. I have picked it up in the last few months and am now playing golf without restriction and my shoulder feels 100% better than before the operation. Following proper rehabilitation i imagine you would be back to your normal self in 6 months. The first 6 weeks is the hardest bit in the sling and only minimal motion to free up the joint.

[angieliu]

Thanks for the info ranga. It's interesting to see that you were in a sling for a long period of time when you had arthroscope surgery. I have a possible tear in my right shoulder which no one can diagnose just yet and there is talk of surgery and I've been most worried about the pain and also the limited range of movement post surgery. I'm glad to hear that your shoulder is feeling better than before the operation. It is comforting to know that.

[jml22]

I had surgery 6 weeks ago on may 29th 2007
I was having major shoulder spazms and quite a bit of pain.
I am glad that i got it as it will be better than new.
If you have any other questions i can be more detailed

[angieliu]

I'd be interested in how you are feeling after surgery compared to before and also the length of time they said that you would be out of action.

I'm still going through the process of finding out what is wrong with my shoulder and no one seems to be able to explain why I am getting the pain and why I have such a weak shoulder.

[jml22]

Well i was out for like a year i could play sports but it hurt everytime i bumepd into someone or had to reach out
I played volleyball flag football soccer and basketball... baseball and golf were out of the question with the tear. I had range of motion but i was getting pain and felt a lack of strength with lifting and stuff.
Its been 6 weeks and it feels great.... no more subluxing ... no pain and my range of motion has returned... Time to rebuild the strength i had.

where are you feeling your pain?

[angieliu]

Thanks.

I'm getting pain at the front of my shoulder mainly sometimes at the back. It's almost like it is right where the bicep inserts into the labrum but a little lower than that. I've had a number of very random diagnoses from subluxation to impingements to tendonitis. Some days it also feels like my shoulder is clicking in and out of place. It is slightly painful to lift my arms out to the side (it's better than before) and also in front of me.

I have good ROM but trouble with lifting heavy things. My rehab for the last 6 months has consisted of doing a series of core stabilising exercises to help strengthen the shoulder girdle.

Nothing has come up on the MRI despite it being suggested that I may have a slap tear and no one has come up with an answer which makes sense with the symptoms I"m showing.

Oh well.

[jml22]

sounds like what i had
the pain at the top is cuased by an inflamed bursa... a shoulder specialist can fix that
The inflamed bursa wont show up on the MRI the surgeon just diagnosed it himself and that pain is gone now.

[angieliu]

I'm getting an ultrasound done in a couple of weeks in the front of my shoulder to try to determine what is causing the pain with the view that if there is inflammation then I need to treat it. My sport doc has recommended a cortisone injection if it can be identified that there is inflammation. I've always been hesistant with cortisone injections but I think because it is being clinically diagnosed I'm a little happier with this idea rather than randomly injecting into my shoulder. If there is no inflammation then this will indicate that there is something going on in the joint and I made need an arthroscope to have a look at it.

With the inflamed bursa, what did the surgeon recommend to do to treat it?

[jml22]

Nothing
he went in there and cleaned it all up
I think its called a bank card repair... not 100% sure what it is
but i'm at like 90% ROM after 7 weeks andi 'm suppoesd to get 99%

[angieliu]

wow really, that's really interesting. But you know it's good to hear that you have 90% ROM after 7 weeks from your operation. I have been so worried that I won't get my full ROM back. I guess I will see what the ultrasound says and go from there.

[jml22]

weird
the guy i went to seems to know his stuff. He never said anything about losing ROM he was like yeah i can fix that and i can fix the pain there do you want me to boook the time.
He seems pretty happy with his work.... as am i

[ah-oh]

Hi,

I think with mine the OS said that they will remove the bursa (gather its a bit messy), take a bit of a bone spur off and just clean up the rubble resulting from the tear (supra...), stitch the clean part of the tendon back on and should be fixed. He seems pretty confident that it's fixable, as does physio. So off I'm going in 2 weeks.

Angieliu, the ultra sound may not show enough info? (as indicated by my OS who wanted an MRI which did confirm part of the ultrasound diagnosis but showed other stuff not clear on the ultrasound). Cheaper that MRI but if you end up getting both, it costs more.

[angieliu]

Hey there,

I've already had a MRI done which did not show anything and that was about 8 months ago. As I'm getting pain at the front of my shoulder where the biceps tendon inserts he has suggested an ultrasound. If it doesn't show any fluid around the tendons then that indicates that something else is going on in the shoulder capsule which will mean I will need to get an arthroscope done.

Bit weary about the cortisone injection because too much of it can weaken the tendons but if it addresses what is causing the pain then I can move on with rehab.

[jml22]

my MRI in canada was covered i went through private it was 1300 bucks but i got it back.
Yeah its called a bank card repair up here.. they make everything smaller so everything feels really tight after the srugery but it loosens up eventually

[steve_q]

its Bankart

have a look here:

http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/generalshoulder/a/bankart_2.htm

[jml22]

Yeah i dunno its up to you... everything was covered in my medical plan.
I already started doing some easy golf swings so things are goin well

[AJones]

I've done a bit of research lately and I'm beginning to think I have a labrum tear as well. I stumbled across the site http://slaptear.com It's pretty labrum sprecific. It's got quite a few members that have been through the surgery. You might want to check it out.