injured shoulder x ray/mri showing nothing...

[kadafee]

i injured my shoulder over a year ao, after trying the barbell cleans the next day i was leaning against my elbow when i felt a 'click', long story short i was in pain, im still in pain, not that bad but its a nagging type of pain, i feel popping and clicking on my shoulder, its weak and i cant do alot of the things i love such as boxing....

anyways i saw a orthopaedic surgeon 3 weeks ago, at first he thought i have a labral tear and reffered me for an mri scan, he told me mri's aren't very reliable for this type of injury but lets see what it picks up...

mri showed nothing so the surgeon now suggests i have an arthroscopy to determine the injury, it could be a little tear that the scan couldn't pick up but before that he wants me to do 4 months of physio therapy.....

anyone had an injury that couldn't be detected by scans and had to be operated?

[Tleaf44]

Yup. Almost identical situation. I went to the ortho after having shoulder pain for a number of months. He ran some tests and nothing came back so he said it could just be loose ligaments and wanted me to do physical therapy for 12 weeks to see if we couldnt tighten up the joint.

Anyway, it didnt help. Went back and he said they could do an arthroscopic surgery to shorten the ligaments and then surgery to make my shoulder tighter which would relieve the pain. So, I go for it and it turns out I did have a labral tear. Ended up getting a bankhart repair.

This was just under two years ago. It took some time getting back and I am very careful when lifting now but I am able to do everything I was before. Full range of motion and really no limitations. I do still stretch a bit more and use ice because I seem to get a bit more sore on that shoulder now.

I felt the initial therapy was a waste personally but thats only because it didnt work. Had it worked I would have been fully recovered in 12 weeks where as after surgery I probably wasnt 100% for 12 months.

[kadafee]

Yup. Almost identical situation. I went to the ortho after having shoulder pain for a number of months. He ran some tests and nothing came back so he said it could just be loose ligaments and wanted me to do physical therapy for 12 weeks to see if we couldnt tighten up the joint.

Anyway, it didnt help. Went back and he said they could do an arthroscopic surgery to shorten the ligaments and then surgery to make my shoulder tighter which would relieve the pain. So, I go for it and it turns out I did have a labral tear. Ended up getting a bankhart repair.

This was just under two years ago. It took some time getting back and I am very careful when lifting now but I am able to do everything I was before. Full range of motion and really no limitations. I do still stretch a bit more and use ice because I seem to get a bit more sore on that shoulder now.

I felt the initial therapy was a waste personally but thats only because it didnt work. Had it worked I would have been fully recovered in 12 weeks where as after surgery I probably wasnt 100% for 12 months.


nice bro, i wish they find out what my problem is so it could be solved

im a little worried because the ortho said even arthroscopy isn't really that reliable.

[JDkeystone]

i injured my shoulder over a year ao, after trying the barbell cleans the next day i was leaning against my elbow when i felt a 'click', long story short i was in pain, im still in pain, not that bad but its a nagging type of pain, i feel popping and clicking on my shoulder, its weak and i cant do alot of the things i love such as boxing....

anyways i saw a orthopaedic surgeon 3 weeks ago, at first he thought i have a labral tear and reffered me for an mri scan, he told me mri's aren't very reliable for this type of injury but lets see what it picks up...

mri showed nothing so the surgeon now suggests i have an arthroscopy to determine the injury, it could be a little tear that the scan couldn't pick up but before that he wants me to do 4 months of physio therapy.....

anyone had an injury that couldn't be detected by scans and had to be operated?


Yup. Almost identical situation. I went to the ortho after having shoulder pain for a number of months. He ran some tests and nothing came back so he said it could just be loose ligaments and wanted me to do physical therapy for 12 weeks to see if we couldnt tighten up the joint.

Anyway, it didnt help. Went back and he said they could do an arthroscopic surgery to shorten the ligaments and then surgery to make my shoulder tighter which would relieve the pain. So, I go for it and it turns out I did have a labral tear. Ended up getting a bankhart repair.

This was just under two years ago. It took some time getting back and I am very careful when lifting now but I am able to do everything I was before. Full range of motion and really no limitations. I do still stretch a bit more and use ice because I seem to get a bit more sore on that shoulder now.

I felt the initial therapy was a waste personally but thats only because it didnt work. Had it worked I would have been fully recovered in 12 weeks where as after surgery I probably wasnt 100% for 12 months.

Same here, as well. Started dislocating my shoulder 7.5 years ago, saw two specialists, both of which told me I just had multidirectional instability (cuz I am naturally hypermobile), and the 2nd of which finally ordered me a standard MRI after my 9th dislocation. Got the results back, said the MRI showed nothing, and I was therefore inoperable, and that, aside from doing extensive physio, I would just have to "live with it".

Well, after I got this final diagnosis, I went from 9 to 33 dislocations in less than two years, til I finally went to a 3rd specialist who agreed I needed surgery. Had the surgery in March, and just found out recently that I not only had no labrum left (it had been completely shaved off by then from all the dislocations), but also a severe Hill-Sachs lesion, and a ton of other damage (all of which should have, in fact, been corrected with surgery a long time ago).

So yeah, moral of story- do NOT trust MRIs. They might be helpful in some situations, but from my own experience (and a lot of other people I've talked to), they're more or less worthless.

[kadafee]

Same here, as well. Started dislocating my shoulder 7.5 years ago, saw two specialists, both of which told me I just had multidirectional instability (cuz I am naturally hypermobile), and the 2nd of which finally ordered me a standard MRI after my 9th dislocation. Got the results back, said the MRI showed nothing, and I was therefore inoperable, and that, aside from doing extensive physio, I would just have to "live with it".

Well, after I got this final diagnosis, I went from 9 to 33 dislocations in less than two years, til I finally went to a 3rd specialist who agreed I needed surgery. Had the surgery in March, and just found out recently that I not only had no labrum left (it had been completely shaved off by then from all the dislocations), but also a severe Hill-Sachs lesion, and a ton of other damage (all of which should have, in fact, been corrected with surgery a long time ago).

So yeah, moral of story- do NOT trust MRIs. They might be helpful in some situations, but from my own experience (and a lot of other people I've talked to), they're more or less worthless.

what im worried about is what if i go through with surgery but they still find nothing?

[JDkeystone]

what im worried about is what if i go through with surgery but they still find nothing?

I would just cross that bridge when you come to it. Seriously, just get the surgery; even if they go in and end up finding nothing, at least then that's ruled out and they can focus on other non-surgical treatment. It's what I should've done years ago.

[Finnegan Bell]

MRI is not accurate to detect labral tears. Ask for MRI with a contrast.

http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/generalshoulder/a/slap.htm

[Tleaf44]

My MRI with contrast did not show anything either. Its better but still not perfect.

Try the PT but I wouldnt take 16 weeks, I probably knew it wasnt working around 8 after literally no improvement.

If that doesnt work I think your chances of having no damage show up in surgery are pretty low.

The surgery should be arthroscopic which is minimally invasive and depending on what they find could be fairly minor and help a lot.

Best of luck.

[kadafee]

yupp i did a mri with contrast too.

[RyanGrob]

MRI is not accurate to detect labral tears. Ask for MRI with a contrast.

http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/generalshoulder/a/slap.htm

MRI with contrast can arguably be the same as a regular MRI. Although an Arthrogram may be slightly better, they both are pretty terrible at detecting labral tears.

[mkit8971]

MRI with contrast can arguably be the same as a regular MRI. Although an Arthrogram may be slightly better, they both are pretty terrible at detecting labral tears.

I agree. My MRI without contrast detected a labral tear, but surgery proved that to be wrong.

[Finnegan Bell]

MRI with contrast can arguably be the same as a regular MRI. Although an Arthrogram may be slightly better, they both are pretty terrible at detecting labral tears.

MRI Arthrogram is the MRI with contrast. I re checked again
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthrogram

[kadafee]

well physio didnt work so surgery it is then.