Patrick Denard explains when rotator cuff tears need surgery and when they don't. A partial tear is like frayed rope ends, while a full-thickness tear is a complete break. Acute full-thickness tears heal better with early surgery than if you wait.
If you've been told you have a rotator cuff tear, one of the first questions you probably have is, do I need surgery? Honestly, yes, but not always. There are specific reasons or times when you definitely want to have the rotator cuff repaired. So let's also talk about the difference in types of tears. So there's partial tears and there are full thickness tears. With a partial tear, if you think about this like a rope, you have fraying on the ends. And with a full thickness tear, there's complete separation of that rope. Another way to think about it is If somebody has an acute rotator cuff tear and it's a full thickness tear, the data there says that they generally are going to do better by having it fixed earlier rather than later.
