Shoulder Arthroscopic repair

It is possible that you had some pathology even before you fell, unless you had a clear MRI taken before the accident. Most people do have cuff tears as they get older, especially if they are active.

Are you debating having surgery? Healing is definitely more difficult at 71. A good PT program may be just as helpful as the risk of nonhealing or re-tears is greater. The questions to answer are, are you in such pain that it is affecting the quality of your life, and can you function as you need to?

Another thing they consider is the quality of the tissue and the muscle. If the tendon tissue is of lower quality, it won't hold a repair. If the muscle has fatty infiltration- that is an indication of a longer standing tear.

It is a painful surgery and the recovery is long. However, if the doc just goes in a cleans things up a bit, doing some tidying of the torn edges and not using anchors and such to try to reattach the tendon, it is a much easier and quicker recovery.

Good luck with your decision! I was not so lucky and it all turned into a disaster (which is how i learned so much unfortunately.)