One commonly sighted reason to perform surgery is to prevent a worsening of an existing pathology. In the shoulder, clinicians aim to preserve important structures such as the rotator cuff with early vs. late surgical interventions despite prior research showing little to no change in progression of tears of rotator cuff tears in patients with a high grade tear. Choosing to delay surgery, without risk of rotator cuff progression, allows a patient to benefit from Physical Therapy. Evidence shows equivocal outcomes between Physical Therapy and surgery for patients with rotator cuff tears. Another structure of concern on a shoulder x ray is a acromion bone spur. In theory, bone spurs on this structure could reduce space between the ball of the shoulder joint and the overlying end of the shoulder blade. New research demonstrates these bone spurs are not as problematic as first theorized.

It has been suggested that a bone spur can lead to shoulder impingement and eventual tearing of the rotator cuff. A recent retrospective study challenged this theory. Yoon et al. examined 119 patients with an intact rotator cuff, diagnosis of impingement, and a 3mm sub-acromial bone spur (Arch Ortho Trauma Surg. 2018). The patients received conservative care including Physical Therapy and received a follow up image to check the cuff integrity as early as 2 years, but as late as 5 years after their initial x ray. The authors found no progression of rotator cuff tears in the 2-5 years after the initial evaluation suggesting the lack of importance the spur relating to tears in the cuff.

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