Sports injuries are common among athletes, whether professional ballers or weekend warriors. For athletes that we dub overhead athletes — people who engage in sports involving overhead arm and hand action, such as throwing or swimming — shoulder injuries are prevalent.
At our practice, board-certified surgeon Dr. William Schell is a big believer in the benefits of an active lifestyle. Dr. Schell also knows that it can lead to more wear-and-tear in the body, so he has dedicated much of his work to helping his patients navigate every manner of sports injury.
This month’s blog post features shoulder injuries in athletes and how we can help.
We already referenced overhead athletes and want to explore this concept further. Most shoulder injuries that we see stem from overuse injuries, especially when the use of the shoulder is to repeatedly lift the arm and hand over the head.
Good examples of this are:
So, whether you play pickleball on weekends or are the pitcher for your local softball team, be mindful of your shoulder and overuse injuries.
Now let’s get into which shoulder injuries tend to affect athletes more often, such as:
Many overhead athletes run into shoulder impingement issues thanks to inflammation due to tendonitis and bursitis. In fact, half of shoulder problems likely tie back to shoulder impingement.
There are different types of shoulder impingement, but the most common ones are due to rotator cuff tendonitis and shoulder bursitis. With rotator cuff tendonitis, there’s damage in the four muscles that come together to form the tendon that attaches your upper arm to your shoulder, or your rotator cuff. This damage causes inflammation that can lead to impingement.
With shoulder bursitis, a bursa sac is inflamed, which can lead to impingement and shoulder pain.
Shoulder impingement lets you know it’s there, as you can experience shoulder pain with certain movements, and you shouldn’t ignore this pain. If we diagnose shoulder impingement, your treatment plan will likely include one or more of the following:
In some cases, surgery is a good path forward, especially if there’s moderate-to-severe tendon damage.
Each year in the United States, nearly 2 million people seek help for rotator cuff tears. Though rotator cuff tears can occur in an acute injury or due to trauma, many stem from overuse, which makes early intervention important. Rotator cuff problems can get progressively worse and lead to more damage — damage that often requires surgery to correct, especially with complete rotator cuff tears.
SLAP stands for superior labrum, anterior to posterior, and these tears affect the labrum in your shoulder, which is cartilage that helps to keep your arm in the socket. SLAP tears are largely due to overuse and overhead sports, accounting for 4% to 8% of all shoulder injuries.
Treating SLAP tears depends upon the extent of the damage, but they can range from rest and PT to arthroscopic repair of the labrum.
This type of injury often starts as an acute issue — trauma dislocates your shoulder joint. The ongoing issue is that one shoulder dislocation increases your odds for another, as the ligaments that hold the bones in your shoulder in place can become chronically stretched out.
In most cases of chronic shoulder dislocations, a strong course of PT is helpful, as is rest and activity modification.
If your shoulder dislocations become repetitive, you might benefit from surgery. Dr. Schell has considerable experience in this arena and can tighten the ligaments and repair other tissues that may be contributing, such as a torn labrum.
This list is far from complete, but the above make up the lion’s share of shoulder injuries among athletes. Whatever the injury, the most important takeaway is that many of these injuries develop and worsen over time. So, you should see us as early as possible.
For expert diagnosis and treatment for any type of shoulder injury, please contact Dr. Schell and our team at our New York City office — located on Columbus Circle on the Upper West Side — at 646-381-2646 to set up an appointment. You can also message us by clicking here.
