" Its torn, I need surgery! "

…are you sure?

 

You get injured and don’t recover in the time frame you would like to. So, you get imaging done of the affected joint. The results show a tear in the soft tissue, so a surgeon recommends surgery to fix the injury. Then after surgery you’re still not recovered and potentially have worse pain.

 

Now you’re asking:

Why am I still in pain?

Was surgery the right option? 

Do I need another surgery? 

 

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WHAT THE RESEARCH SAYS

The answer is possibly that you never needed surgery to begin with because the tear wasn’t the cause of the pain. 

 

Research has shown that there is a high prevalence of asymptomatic intraarticular shoulder, knee and hip pathology detected by MRI. This means that there are many people living with a tear in the soft tissue or some sort of dysfunction in the joint of their shoulder, knee or hip that don’t experience pain or decreased functionality the joint 

 

This research supports that it is hard to be definitive that the pain a patient is experiencing is caused by the findings seen on imaging. We recommend that if a patient is having pain to investigate the pain further through non surgical options. Soft tissue work, manipulation and chiropractic adjustments can be a more effective way to promote healing and a reduction of symptoms than perusing a surgical option.

 

TLDR:

Come see the Thom Body Theory team before pursuing surgery, WE CAN HELP!

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1. Cooper JD, Seiter MN, Ruzbarsky JJ, Poulton R, Dornan GJ, Fitzcharles EK, Ho CP, Hackett TR. Shoulder Pathology on Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Asymptomatic Elite-Level Rock Climbers. Orthop J Sports Med. 2022 Feb 11;10(2):23259671211073137. doi: 10.1177/23259671211073137. PMID: 35174249; PMCID: PMC8842184.

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