How Early Surgical Intervention Can Prevent Serious Shoulder Problems In The Future
If you have shoulder pain, you know how it can affect your life. Just little things like reaching for something in the upper cabinet in your kitchen, or trying to reach behind you in the front seat of the car can be painful. Your physician might have recommended surgery to improve the problem, but you want to put it off and hope things will improve. What you might not know is how early surgical intervention can prevent serious shoulder problems in the future. You might want to stop procrastinating. If this sounds like you, keep reading.
Waiting Can Bring On Muscle Atrophy
When you stop doing normal movements like reaching for things and using your shoulder every day to help reduce the pain, you can make things worse. When you don’t regularly use your muscles, including those in your shoulder, they can become atrophied. Eventually they waste away and the surrounding muscles in that joint lose all function. This causes chronic weakness and will make it more difficult to treat as time passes.
The Joint Itself Can Degenerate
If you allow your shoulder to be left untreated, it can lead to joint space narrowing. This condition results in the development of bone spurs and impingement of the tendons and bursae.
A Rotator Cuff Tear Will Become Worse
If you wait too long, even 2 years, to treat a rotator cuff tear, you risk the chance that it will become worse and significantly limit all your activities. In addition, the partial tear can progress to a total rotator cuff tear and become detached from the bone.
Prompt Treatment Enables Dr. Samuel Koo More Options
Early surgical intervention before any degeneration occurs enables your physician to choose less invasive types of surgery like laparoscopic techniques rather than open surgery or joint replacement.
The earlier you have surgery, the less complications you are likely to experience, plus you have a much better chance of full recovery and function.
If you are suffering with shoulder pain, consider early surgical intervention to prevent serious shoulder problems in the future.
Contact Dr. Samuel Koo at (425) 823-4000, or request an appointment online, for a consultation and thorough examination.