Learning About Diabetes Diagnosis, Treatment and Research

Identifying The Four Muscles That Make Up Your Rotator Cuff And How Shoulder Surgery Repairs Them

31 July 2015 by Carla Hudson

There are fifteen muscles in each of your shoulders. Out of these muscles, you can tear or injure at least half, including your deltoids, your lats (latissimus dorsi, or "back lat" muscles) and the four muscles that make up each rotator cuff. In each case, a torn muscle may heal on its own, if given enough time and immobilized. However, some shoulder muscle injuries are so severe that they need surgery to heal correctly. In this case, the four muscles that make up your rotator cuff all have a specific job to do, and when one of these muscles is out of commission you cannot rotate your arm front to back or in a forward arching circle. Here is how shoulder surgery corrects the problem.

Determining Which Muscle Is Injured

The rotator cuff muscles are comprised of:

• The supraspinatus (thin muscle that passes through the upper bones of the front of your shoulder)
• The subscapularis (which attaches the head of your humerus to your back)
• Teres minor (a smaller muscle that connects the upper humerus to your back), and
• The infraspinatus (which is another large shoulder muscle just above the teres minor that connects the back of the head of your humerus to your shoulder blade)

It is usally the posterior pair of shoulder muscles that a baseball player tears (the teres minor and infrapsinatus), although the subscapularis can be badly injured too. Because muscles are "soft" tissue, you cannot see muscle injuries on an x-ray, but an ultrasound and pain location usually clues your doctor in as to what muscles are damaged.

Surgery

Surgery is only used on shoulders when the tears or damage are severe enough to warrant medical intervention. If your doctor believes you need shoulder surgery, then the injury is quite bad. Thankfully, you do have some options with what type of surgery you select, and minimally invasive shoulder surgery is your best option. It allows you to return to most activities quickly and with less rehab and less down time. If the injured muscle is on your dominant-hand side, then it definitely warrants surgery or you will have a very difficult time trying to do most of the things you have always done with your dominant hand.

During surgery, your doctor will either:

• Reattach the torn tendons to the shoulder
• Sew the torn muscle fibers back together and then immobilize the arm

The surgical procedure you have is determined by how the rotator cuff muscles are torn--from the point of insertion (in between other muscles and or bone), from the tendon attachments, or the actual muscle fibers themselves. 

Share