[old cheese]

Just looking for some collective wisdom.
Apparently I have torn my labrum and have bicep incompetence! (Some who know me would be surprised I had any biceps to begin with)
The misculaskeletalnspecialost i saw wants to refer me to a surgeon (mr potter who works at the Claremont hospital in Sheffield). I just wondered whether surgery is the best option?. Physio hasn’t worked but then again the physio I initially saw thought I had rotator cuff and impingement issues so that seems to have been a wrong diagnosis which I was doing physio for.

I can clearly see there has been some wasting of my labrum and myshoulder feels weak. Lifting a kettle in the morning hurts for example!

Any help and advice greatfully recieved

[Mike Tyson]

Hell, doesn’t sound like much fun matey. I am apparently in need of surgery on my shoulder, but I’m putting it off for a while.

Can’t offer much other than sympathy unfortunately. Best of luck on the recovery.

[Ru]

Prob need an MRI to diagnose. I think recent research suggests that long term outcomes for SLAP tears (posterior labrum tears) are the same for physio/rehab vs surgery. I'm not sure if the findings are the same for Bankart lesions (anterior labrum tears). Some climbers have long term SLAP tears without needing surgery and many can be asymptomatic and undiagnosed in an otherwise stable shoulder. The bicep injury may complicate that if it means that you cannot properly stabilise the shoulder. Basically you need to get the right medical care. A physio with lots of experience in rehabbing shoulder injuries in athletes, an MRI to get a proper diagnosis and possibly the opinion of a good shoulder surgeon that does a lot of sports injuries. I can recommend Nick Allen at Buxton Physiotherapy as a starting point - he's a climber, although i think he's only now seeing patients in Buxton on Saturday mornings. If he thinks that an MRI and/or a surgical opinion is warranted he will say so.

[erm, sam]

https://www.manchestershoulder.com/

Have sports injury rehab specialists, I have seen Christine Holmes, an MRI scanner and noted a surgeon Proffessor Funk so might be a good "all under one roof" solution regarding physio/surgeon etc. Won't be super cheap..

[Mike Tyson]

TC will be along to recommend Professor Funk soon. By all accounts, a very good man.

[thekettle]

I'll beat TC to the recommendation of Prof Funk. I've torn both of mine, and he's surgically repaired them both 7 years ago over 2 winters, allowing me to climb unhindered since. He's also treated Dave Birkett, Frank Bruno and hundreds of professional sports people. You can request him on the NHS at Wrightington Hospital (near Wigan). I had an initial consultation with him privately in Manchester (£250  ) to get things moving, and he then sorted me both an MRI and the surgery on the NHS.
I did try rest plus 4 years of physio rehab and two random NHS consultants first without any success  .