My mom has been through rotator cuff repair twice on each shoulder she has just had the third surgery in the past couple of months the doctor said she is able to go back to work 100% she works for an airline doing ramp service where she loads and unloads bags from the planes so before they sent her back to work she just went and had a mri done on the shoulder to see how it was doing since she has gone through a couple months of physical therapy and now her rotator cuff is worse than ever and they have to do surgery again this would be the third time on one shoulder in march and possibly the other shoulder is torn again instead of doing the regular orthascoptic surgery they are having to go in through her back pull a muscle over the rotator cuff and repair it this way because of all the scar tissue that has built up over the years since this started in 1996 would you think that the out come of the new surgery could be the last or could she have problems with her shoulder for ever I understand you are very busy but if you can just give me a simple answer as to possibly yes or no I would b great full for at least that

Dr. Joshua’s Answer:

Sounds like a difficult case. I’m not an orthopedic surgeon so I’ll leave the expert opinion to your mom’s doctors, but I can only say I hope they get it right this time! It sounds to me like physical therapy is extremely important - I’d be tempted to say more important than surgery in this case.

It’s not unheard of for something to require several re-operations before success is finally achieved, so don’t give up!

Good luck,

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