Patients may feel pain when raising or extending the affected arm, or while trying to sleep at night. The shoulder may feel weaker than the opposing shoulder. The patient also may hear a clicking or popping sound during movement of the shoulder. Over time, an area of the tendon becomes very weak or begins to wear through. Treating Rotator Cuff Tears For small tears of the rotator cuff, doctors may prefer to take a conservative approach to treatment, using medications to ease pain and physical therapy to increase motion within the joint.
Larger tears require open surgery.
Now, doctors have a new device that can aid in these surgical repairs. The circular implant can be used to reinforce a tendon repair when doctors are concerned the tendon may be too weak to support the repair. The implant can also be used to fill in the gap and cover the ends of a shrunken torn tendon. Ideally, in these cases, doctors hope that the patch will reinforce and strengthen the tendon, enabling scar tissue to grow around and cover the defect. The Restore Orthobiologic Soft Tissue Implant was approved by the FDA in September of 1998 for use in soft tissue repair.