1.What is rotator cuff injury? Rotator cuff injury is a common cause of shoulder pain. It is common in middle-aged and old people. Rotator cuff consists of four muscles: supraspinatus, subscapularis, supraspinatus and teres minor. The direct causes of rotator cuff injury are: rotator cuff tendon aging, acromioclavicular joint osteophytes, trauma, and excessive lifting sports injury. Rotator cuff injury is common in the supraspinatus muscle injury rupture, causing shoulder joint pain, the patient can not lift the upper limb; may also be two or three muscles tear. 2.How to find rotator cuff injury? 1) shoulder joint pain: traumatic rotator cuff injury patients with severe shoulder pain, shoulder joint activity disorders, significant pain at night; senile rotator cuff injury manifested as chronic shoulder joint pain, can not comb hair, belt, feel the back, lifting the upper limb. 2) Physical examination: doctors can find patients with decreased ability of forward flexion, backward extension, upper limb lifting, internal or external rotation; muscle atrophy. 3)Imaging findings: X-rays can find osteophytes of the shoulder joint, hooked acromion, sclerosis of the greater tuberosity of the humerus; magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can find rotator cuff tendons with high signals, irregular morphology, rupture, and tendon retraction, which is the most valuable in the diagnosis of this disease; CT is not of much value. If the patient has shoulder pain after trauma, accompanied by shoulder joint activity disorder, X-ray excludes the fracture dislocation, the doctor highly suspects rotator cuff injury, it is recommended to do shoulder MRI examination to confirm the diagnosis. For elderly patients with long-term chronic shoulder pain and ineffective conservative treatment, MRI should be done to check whether there is rotator cuff injury.MRI is one of the most accurate examination methods to diagnose rotator cuff injury. 3.How to treat rotator cuff injury? First of all, please ask the sports medicine doctor or orthopedic joint specialist to determine whether you have rotator cuff injury. There are conservative and surgical treatment options. For patients with rotator cuff injury with short time of illness, mild symptoms and less serious degree of injury, they can choose oral anti-inflammatory and pain relieving drugs, closed shoulder joint injection treatment, local physical therapy, proper exercise training treatment, etc. If the doctor examines and diagnoses rotator cuff injury tear or rupture, and the above mentioned conservative treatments are ineffective, then the patients need to choose surgical repair treatments. Surgical methods include: arthroscopic minimally invasive rotator cuff tendon repair surgery, incision repair tendon and upper humerus repair surgery. The surgeon and patient can discuss the choice of surgery. The arthroscopic minimally invasive rotator cuff tendon repair surgery method is favored by patients because it is less invasive, quicker recovery, and has the same effect as incision surgery. The minimally invasive procedure can be performed in hospitals with the above mentioned surgical conditions and by experienced surgeons who have specialized training in minimally invasive arthroscopic rotator cuff repair, and is slightly more expensive than the incision repair procedure. Both surgical methods can achieve the purpose of curing rotator cuff injury. 4.How to prevent rotator cuff injury? Firstly, it is necessary to exercise the shoulder muscles, often carry out shoulder abduction, forward flexion, internal rotation, external rotation movement training, which can prevent rotator cuff injury; secondly, when you find shoulder discomfort or pain and other early symptoms, choose sports medicine or joint surgery doctor for examination, early detection and early treatment.