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Blood flow in muscle

This is a subject that I have been pondering for a while. I was just re reading T.Hendrickson's OM book and he states that the rotator cuff muscles-esp. supraspinatus-have poor blood supply. His reference is "Management of Common Musculoskeletal Disorders." I haven't seen this book or researched this but I'm going to start.

I have many clients who complain about tension and cramps in their legs as well as several post-surgery shoulder pain.

Does anyone have any info on blood flow to muscles?

Cheers,

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Whitney Lowe on January 21, 2010 at 10:08am

Jody:
What Tom is referring to is not so much the entire muscle but more of the distal tendon. It is a region with especially poor blood supply and that is one of the reasons for so many common rotator cuff disorders. There are also reports of a similar region of poor blood supply in the proximal tendon of the biceps brachii and that is another reason for impingement problems affecting it.

The book he referenced is a good text, but you can find plenty more on this in academic papers by just typing "supraspinatus and avascular" into the Google Scholar search engine (www.scholar.google.com). For those unfamiliar with Google schoolar, it is the Google search engine, but searches are limited to academic papers and do not include commercial sites.

Whitney

Permalink Reply by Carla R Stingle on February 12, 2010 at 7:49pm

Whitney- If someone has an injury to the glenohumeral joint ( such as a fall landing on the elbow "jamming" the shoulder) would the lack of blood flow to the tendons in this joint be the reason for a long recovery? What can you do to help increase healing time other than crossfiber friction to joint to encourage blood flow?

Permalink Reply by Whitney Lowe on February 16, 2010 at 11:40am

It is certainly possible. The healing of these tissues needs adequate blood flow, and a lack of it could certainly slow the healing process.

It is difficult to decrease (I think that's what you meant to say) healing time. The best we can do is make an optimal environment for the body's healing to proceed on its schedule. Massage can't specifically increase local circulation in the supraspinatus, but techniques like deep friction can be helpful to stimulate fibroblast activity and encourage tissues healing.