What We Treat

Rotator cuff tear treatment in New Orleans.

Reaching the top shelf with your other arm. Waking every time you roll onto that side. Torn or already repaired, it starts with a cause-first evaluation.

Overhead weakness Night pain Post-op rehab Talk to a Specialist

Sound Familiar?

Does this sound like you?

  • Lifting your arm to wash your hair and finishing with the other hand
  • Reaching behind your back for a seatbelt and finding it simply won’t go
  • Getting your arm overhead, then feeling it give out on the way down
  • Clicking and popping in the shoulder loud enough that other people hear it
  • Upper arm pain at night that puts you in the recliner instead of the bed
  • Loading the top shelf with your good arm and calling that normal

Two or more? Keep reading.

Why It Happens

Rotator Cuff Tears have a cause. We find it.

The rotator cuff is four small muscles whose tendons wrap the ball of your shoulder and hold it centered. A tear can happen all at once: a fall, a hard pull, a weight you caught instead of dropped. More often it’s years of the same reach with the shoulder blade sitting in the wrong place, and a tendon frayed a little further each time.

Size matters less than people expect. Small tears often settle down with the right loading. Larger, full-thickness tears may need a repair first, then rehab. Either way the cause is the same question: what was that tendon being asked to do, and what wasn’t helping it. Leave the question unanswered and the inflammation and dysfunction carry on, which is how small tears become larger ones. You’re the one who works through things. That instinct is part of why this got worse, and it’s also exactly what makes rehab work once somebody aims it.

Person holding their shoulder in discomfort

The Honest Truth

Waiting doesn’t make a rotator cuff tear wait on you.

If you keep waiting

  • Inflammation and dysfunction carry on, and that is how small tears become larger ones
  • The shoulder stiffens and weakens, so whatever you do next starts further back
  • The longer a tear sits untreated, the shorter the list of options becomes

If you start this week

  • Visit one pins down what is torn and what it’s costing you in range and strength
  • Conservative care gets a fair run before anybody talks about surgery
  • A plan with an endpoint, whether you had a repair or you’re trying to avoid one

Nobody regrets starting too early. Think about the reach you’ve already given up, and whether you want that to be permanent.

How We Fix It

The same four phases. Built for a torn cuff.

This is Magnolia’s own four-phase program, run for rotator cuff tears, before a repair or after one. Every plan has an endpoint.

Where we start

Pain

Calm the shoulder down.

Tissue rest and anti-inflammatory modalities settle the irritation, with manual therapy for pain relief and joint mobility. After a repair, we work inside your surgeon’s protocol.

Once the pain settles

Prime

Get the range back first.

Gentle shoulder mobilization and stretching restore motion overhead, behind your back and across your body.

Once motion returns

Perform

Rebuild the cuff itself.

Targeted strengthening for the rotator cuff and the musculature around it, loaded one honest step at a time.

Before we sign off

Prevent

Return better than before.

We correct the posture and mechanics that frayed the tendon, then hand you a progressive home program. That’s the endpoint, not another appointment.

I began therapy 3 weeks post-op, rotator cuff repair. After surgery I experienced zero pain, that continued throughout 4+ months of therapy, again zero pain.

T. Sherburne

At the start: your shoulder decides what you can lift

At the end: you decide what you can lift

Rotator Cuff Tears Four phases

Related Conditions

Pain rarely stays in one place.

Compensation patterns often show up nearby. Here’s what else we treat.

1

Shoulder Pain

Pinching, night pain and catching, with no tear named yet.

Learn More 2

Tendinitis

A tendon that flares the moment you go back to normal.

Learn More 3

Sports Injuries

Getting back to your sport without a second setback.

Learn More

Questions, Answered

What people ask before booking for a rotator cuff tear.

Sometimes, because this is one of the conditions where a picture can genuinely change the plan. It still isn’t the first step. We start with a hands-on evaluation of your range, your strength and the way your shoulder blade moves, which tells us what the tear is actually costing you. We can also look at the tendon with musculoskeletal ultrasound here in the clinic. And if your tear responds well to conservative care, that often spares you unnecessary imaging, injections or surgery.

Yes, with the right movements at the right load. A torn cuff does not get stronger by resting, and a shoulder held still stiffens and weakens, which makes everything after it harder. Some ranges and lifts do need to wait, and after a repair your surgeon’s protocol sets the pace. A licensed physical therapist sorts out which is which at your evaluation, then progresses you as the tendon tolerates it.

We won’t hand you a number before we have looked at your shoulder, because a number picked in advance is a guess. Tear size, how long it has been there and whether you had a repair all change the answer. What you get instead is a plan with an endpoint. Your plan runs through our four phases, Pain, Prime, Perform and Prevent, and each phase has a job and a way to know you have finished it. Your therapist talks through the likely shape of yours at the evaluation, and you will always know which phase you are in and what is left.

Book Your Visit

Ready when you are.

Request a time and a real person calls you back. No phone tree, no ‘someone will reach out.’ Just a plan.

  • Hours Mon to Fri, 7:00am to 6:00pm
  • (504) 733-0254 Prefer to talk now? Call us.
  • Insurance benefits check before you book

4.9 · 650+ 5-star reviews

Five short questions. About a minute.

Step 1 of 6

So we know who to look for when you walk in.

Visit Us

Three clinics. One phone number.

Westbank, Marigny, Elmwood. Whichever is closest, you get the same care and the same number to call.

Harvey (Westbank)

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New Orleans (Marigny)

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Harahan (Elmwood)

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