Shoulder Impingement & Subacromial Decompression
Shoulder Impingement /Subacromial Decompression
Shoulder impingement is a very common condition that leads to shoulder pain and affects multiple people. The rotator cuff is a group of muscles arising out of your shoulder blade bone (scapula) and getting attached to the top of your arm bone (humerus) as rotator cuff tendons. These rotator cuff tendons lie in a narrow space between the top of your arm bone (humerus) and the bone on the top of your shoulder blade (acromion), called the subacromial space. Shoulder impingement is a condition where these rotator cuff tendons get pinched and damaged in the subacromial space, leading to severe pain during overhead activities.
Causes-
Individuals involved in overhead activities (occupational, sports javelin throw, basketball, badminton) are prone to wear and tear of the shoulder blade bone (acromion), leading to the development of bone spurs that start impinging and irritating the rotator cuff tendons.
Some individuals are born with a hook-shaped acromion process, which leads to the shoulder.
Treatment –
Subacromial decompression is an arthroscopic surgery that is performed to release the tight ligament of the coracoacromial arch (an osteofibrous structure resulting from the continuity of the acromion, coracoacromial ligament, and coracoid process with each other) and to shave away some of the undersurface of the acromion, thus raising the roof of the shoulder and giving more space for the rotator cuff tendons to move. The rotator cuff tendon will then be able to move more freely without rubbing, which results in swelling of the tendon.
Subacromial decompression (arthroscopic) surgery is a keyhole surgery; it is commonly performed for impingement syndrome, which has failed to respond to conservative measures such as steroid injection and physiotherapy. The surgery is usually carried out as a same-day procedure.