What to expect from a cortisone injection for rotator cuff tear

A rotator cuff tear can make lifting, reaching or sleeping on the affected side painful. Cortisone is placed near the irritated tissues, often with local anaesthetic, to reduce inflammation and make movement more comfortable. Relief may help you take part in physiotherapy, but the injection does not rejoin tendon fibres or restore strength by itself.

Your clinician will consider the tear's size, your strength, examination findings and any scan results before recommending it. Repeated injections may not be suitable for every tendon problem, so ask how this option fits with rehabilitation or surgical discussions.

Share your medicines, allergies, diabetes history and any recent infection. Arrange help if shoulder discomfort makes driving difficult. Keep the arm gently mobile as advised, but avoid heavy lifting, forceful overhead work and exercises that sharply increase pain during the early recovery period.

Once the clinician or physiotherapist says it is appropriate, a graded programme can address shoulder motion and the muscles that support the joint. Do not use reduced pain as permission to test the shoulder with sudden loads; pain can improve before the tendon has recovered.

Seek prompt medical advice for increasing redness, warmth, swelling or drainage at the injection site, fever, or pain that becomes severe instead of easing. Obtain urgent care for a sudden major loss of shoulder power, a new visibly deformed shoulder, chest pain, breathing difficulty or signs of a serious allergic reaction.

Ask whether the injection is intended for the joint or surrounding bursa, how long to protect the shoulder, which exercises are safe, and how your tendon tear will be monitored. Ask what change in strength or function would prompt another treatment discussion.