I was in an Automobile accident. My shoulder struck the driver's door as did my head. Prior to this MVA I had no problems with my shoulder. I was never involved in sports nor did any repetitive motion, no prior surgeries or overhead work. I felt a sharp burn sensation upon impact and pain of course. The pain never stopped so I went though physical therapy and it seemed to get worse. I finally visited a orthopedic doctor roughly 3 months after and it was found that I had a torn rotator cuff (partial thickness tear, type II acromion with impingement). He also stated he removed a bone spur. That there was evidence of posterior-superior humeral head impaction consistent with impingement. I was 39 years old when this happened. Is this injury related to my accident or just normal wear and tear? I have one doctor that says impact related other says no.
It seems, from what you are saying, that you we involved in a serious accident, and suffered a serious injury to your shoulder during the course of the motor vehicle accident. So I would say yes, your shoulder injury is related to your accident.
I was in an Automobile accident. My shoulder struck the driver's door as did my head. Prior to this MVA I had no problems with my shoulder. I was never involved in sports nor did any repetitive motion, no prior surgeries or overhead work. I felt a sharp burn sensation upon impact and pain of course. The pain never stopped so I went though physical therapy and it seemed to get worse. I finally visited a orthopedic doctor roughly 3 months after and it was found that I had a torn rotator cuff (partial thickness tear, type II acromion with impingement). He also stated he removed a bone spur. That there was evidence of posterior-superior humeral head impaction consistent with impingement. I was 39 years old when this happened. Is this injury related to my accident or just normal wear and tear? I have one doctor that says impact related other says no.
Dear Dave,
I had a similar accident except if was from a fall at tennis a few months back when running to return a ball I tripped and fell hitting a line of bricks at the edge of the last court. I fell onto my left shoulder and scapula pinning my arm under my chest. My arm and hand swelled up almost immediately after the incident. I returned to the clubhouse and applied ice to the arm and hand. The swelling receded after about 20 minutes and I felt well enough to return to playing. I also returned to my usual gym regimen (3 times a week). About two weeks later I awoke in the middle of the night with severe excruciating pain across my upper back. After going through the motions of seeing my gp and having an ultrasound, nothing showed up. He thought it was just muscle inflammation and prescribed anti-inflammatories. After another two weeks the pain was still there. My instincts told me that there was definitely something more sinister going on so I requested an MRI scan. This showed one muscle tear, two tendon tears and a bone spur. I went to an orthopaedic surgeon who booked the surgery to repair everything. This was done on the 20th of September and I was in hospital to two days after which I was pain free. I had no breakout pain (probably because my pain threshold was high from the pain I had already experienced in the previous month). I am now in my 4-6 week physio period and progressing very well. I am unable to do any resistance work on my left arm for at least 3-6 months as I had the torn biceps and rotator cuff tendons reattached with anchors into the bone which have to knit and regrow strongly. I was told by the surgeon that you can be walking around with torn tendons and not even feel it. It is the inflammation from this that causes the pain. Don't ignore what your body is telling you, get an MRI to define what is causing the problem and take it from there. My surgery was done arthroscopically by a very good surgeon and only took one hour to repair all the damage. With good physio I will make a complete recovery and be able to return to my gym regimen next year.
Good Luck with it. ........ Danhum 60. (no longer Angry).
The Following User Says Thank You to danhum60 For This Useful Post: kolbrun2606 (11-01-2011)
Re: Rotator Cuff Surgery 
