Bone spur in shoulder

Not all bone spurs in the shoulders cause symptoms

Lots of people go through their lives with a bone spur in the shoulder without ever being aware of it. This is because they provoke no symptoms. However, not all of them are so lucky. The bone spurs or osteophytes alone do not hurt but if they rub against the bone that is around them or the nerves and the soft tissue, that can be painful. A rotator cuff that is not working properly and a decreased range of movement of the arm are some of the symptoms. Swelling in the rotator cuff may occur as well.

Causes of bone spurs

Along with aging, comes to the changes in the body and bone spurs may be among those changes. There are some cases where the bone spurs help the body in a way that they make up for the areas where the joint is unstable.

When to see the doctor

When a person feels pain or if he or she cannot move their arm as much as they should, that is the time to go and see a doctor, to get the right diagnosis. The doctor will perform a physical exam and make you take an x-ray, CT scan or a magnetic resonance test. These extra tests will help the doctor make the right diagnosis.

Customized treatment for shoulder bone spurs

The whole point of the treatment is to ease the pain and bring back the full movement of the arm. There are some injections, like cortisone for example, which will relieve the pain temporarily. On the other hand, these injections may harm the bone and tissue if a person has too many shots. Certain exercises and therapy will make a difference as well. Surgery is used only in the most severe cases.

The rotator cuff and surgery

In cases where the rotator cuff is torn, a doctor will tell a person that surgery is an option. There are three types of surgery in this case and the surgeon will decide which one is the best. Open repair, mini-open repair and all-arthoscopic repair are the three types of surgeries. During a surgery, the surgeon may even remove the shoulder bone spur for some time while he or she is mending the rotator cuff. The case with most surgeries is that there is a chance of a complication but some 90% of people have said that these surgeries are commonly successful.