Sports Injury Info

bone spur on shouder (surgery for impingement)

by bill richards
(lakeside,ca. USA)

I have been having some problems with my shoulder when I raise it while lifting. The x-ray showed a small bone spur and some minor tendonosis of the rotator cuff along with some osteoarthritis on the ac joint. The ortho doc that I was seeing and trusted very much recently retired and now I don't have anyone that I can trust to do this procedure.

When I had a second opinion from another ortho he said that I could go for several years without having anything done. Would it be better to wait and not worry about it for now? I would have had it done a year ago but was very worried about having any bone or joint surgery or just not getting any results. Can other doctors perform this procedure as good as a doc that
has been doing surgery for 32 years?

Can having a bone spur removed make a noticable difference?

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bone spur on shouder (surgery for impingement)

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Sep 04, 2008
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starstarstarstarstar 		You could wait...
by: Bart - SII

You probably could wait to have anything done - it comes down to how much this affecting your quality of life - are you unable to do things you want to be able to do, is the pain limiting activities, is your motion or strength limiting your ability to perform life activities?

Impingement syndrome generally continues to get worse with time unless something is done about it. And the longer you wait, the worse the muscle imbalances get, the bone spur may continue to wear on the rotator cuff, etc.

An arthroscopic subacromial decompression is a fairly straightforward procedure - I would trust any surgeon who has performed them previously with good results.

A rotator cuff repair is more complicated, and I would be more selective with my surgeon choices - someone who specializes in the shoulder, who does lots of rotator cuff repairs, and who has had good outcomes and is a strong believer in early rehabilitation.

Bart

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