According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, rotator cuff injuries are a common cause of shoulder pain, affecting about 2 million people every year in the United States. These injuries can be caused by direct impact to the shoulder joint, but most often, they’re caused by wear and tear from repetitive use of your shoulders over time.
For years, rotator cuff repair required surgery to restore the damaged tissue. But today, another option is a special implant called REGENETEN® that helps heal the damaged tissue naturally.
As a leading orthopedic specialist in Sugar Land and Houston, Texas, J. Michael Bennett, MD, PA, offers state-of-the-art REGENETEN treatment to help patients relieve painful shoulder symptoms and restore normal shoulder function. Here’s how REGENETEN works and can help heal your sore shoulder.
Your shoulder joint is a ball and socket joint that forms where the ball end of your upper arm bone (humerus) fits into a socket made by your shoulder bone (scapula). Those bones are held in place by the rotator cuff, a group of muscles and tendons that support a wide range of movement.
Rotator cuff injuries happen most often when one or more tendons are torn. Commonly, these are partial tears, extending only partway through the tendon. If you have a partial tear, you might have symptoms like:
While some mild tears respond to physical therapy, if the tendon doesn’t heal completely, it can eventually progress to a more serious injury, including a full-thickness tear that detaches the tendon from the joint structure.
Traditionally, rotator cuff repair only focused on restoring shoulder mobility when significant tissue damage had already occurred. Typically, that meant invasive surgery to repair or reattach the tendon, followed by a long period of recovery to regain shoulder function and use.
REGENETEN takes a different approach. Instead of waiting until a more serious tear develops, REGENETEN focuses on repairing damage before it becomes severe. By repairing tissue early, the implant can slow or halt the progression of rotator cuff problems while also facilitating normal shoulder function.
About the size of a postage stamp, the REGENETEN implant uses “bioinductive” technology to induce or promote natural healing responses in the rotator cuff tissues. Once in place, the collagen-based implant encourages the growth and development of new, healthy tissue that replaces damaged tissue while also providing a scaffold that protects the shoulder from further damage.
Dr. Bennett places the implant on top of your rotator cuff via a small incision, anchoring it in place for stability. Once in place, the implant supports healing and encourages new tissue development over the next several months, eventually absorbed and incorporated into the newly developed tissue.
Rotator cuff tears are especially common as we age, and years of wear and tear takes its toll on our shoulders. With REGENETEN, Dr. Bennett can help your shoulder heal without major surgery, so you can get back to the activities you love.
To learn more about REGENETEN and other shoulder treatments, book an appointment online or over the phone with Dr. Bennett today.
