Shoulder Injury - Labrum Tear

arthroscopic surgery on a search engine. Even try your specific injury with Arthroscopic Labrum surgery. Quite a few professional athletes incur this type of injury. From what I understand, the little "cup" (glenoid labrum)that your humerus fits into is rough on an edge and causing the humerus (?) to slip out. The repair is to the edge of the little cup to prevent the slipping. Look at some anatomy text or internet sites to see exactly what's the problem. Medscape (free registration) offers some good search engines for specific problems.

Dennis, A teammate of mine, who doesn't participate in the discussion forum, recently had surgery for a torn labrum and is doing very well. She will soon be back in the water. Email me privately and I'll give you her email so you can talk to her directly. I don't think she'd mind talking to you about it, but would like to ask her first. Meg

I had arthroscopic surgery at the end of January. Surgeon cleaned up tears in the rotator cuff tendons. I lost about 30% of the tendons and the remainder is tacked down with a permanent metal staple. Repair of a SLAP lesion (labrum tear) and stabilized with a biodegradable screw. Cleaned the surfaces of the humeral head and glenoid fossa and left with a "bald spot", an area devoid of cartilage that is bone on bone. It was a very painful and long recovery but am happy to report that I competed at LC Nat'ls in the 3 backstroke events just 7-1/2 months post surgery. I can now also swim freestyle and am swimming 4 days per week and about 3000 yds. per workout (2000 swimming and 1000 kicking). So there is a swimming life after surgery IF you have a good surgeon and a aggressive rehab program. Dennis if you want more detailed information, I am in the USMS e-mail directory.

Dennis, I have the same injury and highly recommend that you not only get a second opinion...get a third medical opinion. Do some research on these orthopaedic people and find at least one that has a reputation for encouraging agressive rehab and further injury prevention BEFORE they do any surgery. The decision to have surgery should be made after exhausting all non-surgical options. Laura

Thanks everyone for the help... on my injury. I will tell you happens with my decision. If I do have surgery I will let you know how it goes and what I would differently when it is over. Dennis If there are anymore thoughts let me know.

I had surgery five weeks ago for "massive" SLAP lession (the labrum was detached from the bone) and "serious" rotator cuff tear. The labrum injury was non-swimming related and caused, some time later the rotator cuff tear. I tried massage, tested my shoulder arm from various other problems and then after the MRI showed a "possible" SLAP lession and partial rotator cuff tear (it was work the tear was nearly full thickness) I started a six week rehab program. After one week of rehab the pain got worse and my PT suggested scrapping it and finding another doc. (Cortisone also didn't help at all). That's when I had surgery. BTW, this doctor told me that rehab will not repair a SLAP lesion. During the six months of trying to figure out what to do I spoke to a number of swimmers who elected to have this surgery (I did not speak to those who elected to rehab it so there was a built in bias). I heard repeated stories of failed rehab..or rehab that worked for a short time. I was pretty much resigned to surgery by then so these stories did not really impact my decision that much. If rehab and the other treatments methods don't work and you do have surgery a few words of advice. The surgery is really a piece of cake. It doesn't take more than 1-2 hours. BUT once the nerve block wears off it hurts like hell. I'd insist on getting morphine if I ever do my other shoulder. Also talk to your doctor about pain management in advance. Get lots of drugs because you'll need them. I'm told that it will take at least 12 weeks of rehab (because of the labrum injury I couldn't start rehab until 10 days after surgery and the first 6-8 weeks is dedicated to regaining motion) before I can start swimming and 12 months before fully recovered. The good news is that many people who've had this surgery report a very good experience one year out. Good luck PS: Laura--hope your shoulder is better. It's tough sitting on the sidelines watching Jenny get into fine racing shape.

Check out this article from The Physician and Sports Medicine: www.physsportsmed.com/.../richards.htm It's a nice review of the glenoid labrum and SLAP injuries.

Condition: I have the same labrum tear condition as Dennis. I'm 28 and have swam competitively my entire life. About 11 months ago I was swimming with hand paddles, and being a little bit out of shape, decided to push it a little to hard. Something felt really wrong and has never gotten better. X-Rays revealed nothing, yet an MRI showed a slight tear in the labrum. I am experiencing the same "catching" or popping feeling on freestyle during the recovery. Only an over-extended or very high elbow recovery allows me to avoid this catching sensation, yet the muscles around my shoulder still get very sore trying to hold everything in place. Question: Is there a shoulder support on the market that has been used by swimmers? If so, does it work? Is there anything else that can be done for a labrum tear besides surgery? My shoulder doesn't hurt in general, yet I want to swim and that is when the pain arrives.

You should see a doctor AND an experienced sports physical therapist. You will likely be advised to try PT first and as pointed out elsewhere this is highly desirable. I strongly recommend against any swimming that hurts and stay away from any "support"devices that will help you swim. Stay focused on recovery. Furthermore, "slight" tears as evidenced through MRIs are quite inaccurate. It may be 20% detached or 70% detached or it might be totally detached. You'll know more once you try PT. If it doesn't start getting better within 6 weeks (no matter how miniscule the progress) then you'll need to look into other options. Recovery from labrum injury takes a long time. Again, you should avoid swimming until this is resolved. If you swim with a labrum injury you can easily mess up your mechanics and then cause damage to parts of the shoulder such as the rotator cuff. Good luck

My wife recently had surgery for what was diagnosed as "tendenopothy", something that she has suffered from for almost 10 months. She did this after a lot of PT, kick only workouts, cortisone, etc. etc. failed to improve the pain. The scary thing was that after the surgeon started the surgery he quickly found what the MRI & X-rays didn't show, almost a 95% tear of her rotator cuff. Thankfully this surgeon has a long background of working with swimmers/athletes and was able to complete the surgery arthroscopically (he mentioned some doctors would have opened up the shoulder) and she should heal completely (6 months out of the water however). Point being; get several opinions, preferably with a doc who understands swimming. However, delaying surgery often can make things worse like it did for Laura, no amount of PT, acupuncture, cortisone or rest would have healed the problem. Good luck Dennis!