I'm sure you know family member/friends who have had shoulder problems that required surgery and rehabilitation. Most of these injuries happen while doing the simplest acts - things that have been done hundreds of times in the past without incident. It doesn't just happen lifting weights. It can happen playing tennis, swimming, cleaning windows, or taking out the trash.
What are your options if you have a torn rotator cuff?
An increasingly popular option is surgery. Between 1996 and 2006, the volume of shoulder rotator cuff repairs increased 141 percent. During this same time period, arthroscopic procedures on shoulders increased by 600 percent. Total and partial shoulder replacements have skyrocketed. Loyola University Medical Center performed 10 times more shoulder replacements in 2015 than 2010. Shoulder surgery success rates vary from 5% to 75%. Many factors can determine how successful a surgery might be. The re tear or "fail" rate of a shoulder surgery can vary from 20% to 90% depending on the size of the tear.
Another option for shoulder pain is a conventional treatment of cortisone shots. It will help the inflammation. They seem to work like a miracle, but they only provide temporary relief and need to be repeated. In the end, they actually contribute to additional fibrosis and chronic joint problems.
Stem cell therapy and injections can regenerate and heal damaged tissue. This particular patient was told by his surgeon that he needed surgery, but was not given an outcome because the surgeon didn't know what he was going to find when he got in there. Opting for a less invasive treatment with better outcomes, he decided to try stem cell therapy.
