Dr. Joshua John-Ram Schacter explains how muscle atrophy happens after injury: a damaged tendon stops pulling on the muscle, or the muscle itself goes dormant. Severe cases need surgery, biologic therapy, or years of physical therapy to recover.
Muscle atrophy after a musculoskeletal injury can be a very severe problem. Muscle atrophy usually indicates that the tendon to a muscle has been so badly damaged that the muscle is no longer pulling on that tendon, or that it's been damaged so badly that the muscle can, quote, unquote, go to sleep. Muscle atrophy can be a pretty big issue, and it usually requires extensive treatment. A lot of times physical therapy. In some cases, biologics therapy can be useful here, but in most cases, it's a long course of physical therapy. It's a repair of the tendon that is torn, or even in some cases of the shoulder, a replacement of that joint. It can be a severe problem.
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