Handsome man with shoulder pain

A Better Way Forward for Rotator Cuffs

A torn rotator cuff is no fun at all. It’s a common cause of pain and injury for millions of patients. When your rotator cuff tears, you’ll find that you have a lot of trouble doing what seems like simple tasks, such as raising your arm, putting clothes on, or even brushing your teeth.

Your rotator cuff is a group of muscles and tendons that keep your arm inside your shoulder socket. This allows for full range of motion in your arm. When your rotator cuff is torn, your tendons are effectively severed from your arm.

When you feel unable to move your arm, especially if there is pain the shoulder areas, this could be a sign of a rotator cuff tear. It used to be that the only way to treat the pain was with surgery or anti-inflammatory injections. However, at Progressive Rehabilitation Medicine, there is a non-surgical way that not only relieves the pain, but uses your body’s own ability to repair itself to repair your tendons.

An effective form of regenerative medicine is PRP, or Platelet Rich Plasma. This involves the extraction of a small dose of blood from your body, which is then spun through a centrifuge to concentrate and separate the healing platelets in your blood. We inject this into your injured tendons using state-of-the-art ultrasound in our office. This is a purely outpatient procedure with the benefit of allowing you to get back to your daily routine as quickly as possible.

The results with regenerative medicine are remarkable. In the image below, you will note that the tear seen on the left has disappeared three months after PRP treatment was administered.

Shoulder-rotator cuff tear

At Progressive Rehabilitation Medicine, we see patients who are in pain and at their wits’ end from their injuries and are looking for a way to get better without resorting to surgery, which does not always relieve the pain. We are proud to offer Cedar Rapids and the surrounding areas with cutting-edge medical advancements in regenerative medicine that have the ability to help so many people find relief where they thought hope was lost.

Contact us today to schedule an appointment and regain the mobility in your life.