You are just like all of us. You are reaching middle age with your children growing. You are working harder for their future and not taking care of your body. All of sudden, some shoulder pain begins to nag you a bit and then gets aggravated while you are playing with your child. You are tired of the pain and the fact that you keep getting woken up at night with shoulder pain. You finally decide to see your primary care physician and he/her gives you a shoulder cortisone injection. You aren't sure exactly what's wrong but ahhh, that shoulder feels better.
WARNING: New research has been recently published from the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at USC which has been universally accepted in the orthopedic community. Patients who have an underlying rotator cuff tear and undergo 2 cortisone injections have a greater than 100% or 2 fold incidence of not healing their rotator cuff repair after surgery and require a revision surgery. Remember, an injection of cortisone will not lead to bonding of a torn rotator cuff tendon.
LESSON: If a single injection doesn't permanently improve your shoulder pain, don't get another injection. See an orthopedic surgeon and be evaluated. If you have ongoing shoulder pain, I would be happy to evaluate you and determine the best treatment plan based on objective data. This is Chris Pallia, MD at Pallia Orthopedics and Synergy Orthopedic Specialists Medical Group at (619) 435-7282.
Comentários