Physiotherapists in Islington treat many different conditions including the issues profiled below.

Rotator Cuff Tears

The rotator cuff is the stabilising group of muscles which maintain the precise relationship between the head of the arm bone and the shoulder socket. They travel from the shoulder blade and pass towards the head of the humerus, become more tendon like as they go until they insert into the bony protuberance on the outside of the humeral head, known as the greater tuberosity. Rotator cuff dysfunction is common and can be secondary to trauma but is much more commonly due to the effects of age. .Grey hair equals cuff tear. is a surgeon.s saying when an older person presents with shoulder pain.

The rotator cuff tendons change with time and may suffer from areas of reduced blood supply due to anatomical and impingement factors, increasing the likelihood of tears developing and reducing its ability to heal. Tears can vary from small splits in one tendon to huge tears in the whole of the tendon sheet of the combined rotator cuff with complete dysfunction of the shoulder complex. Pain can be considerable apart from the inability to raise the arm against gravity and sleep can be badly affected. Rotator cuff repair can be performed for most tears but the process is painful and takes many months to rehabilitate.

Neck Posture

The head is a large and heavy object balanced on top of a slender column of bone and ligaments which is known as the neck. Postural neck pain is very common as our mainly sedentary lifestyles mean that we spend long periods in one position often with our necks held in less than optimal postures. Gravity pushes us down all the time and the neck tends to move forward as the lower neck flexes for us to look down at books or computers. As our head is now looking downwards we don't want to look at the floor all the time so we tilt the head back up, extending the upper neck.

This position, when held long term, can lead to the head stuck forward posture and a .dowager's hump., a prominent bony area at the base of the back of the neck. This can lead to neck strain both at the top and bottom of the neck, causing neck and shoulder pain lower down and neck and head pain higher up. The head forward posture forces the neck muscles and the upper trapezius to work harder than normal to hold the head up in its abnormal position.