I. What is “frozen shoulder”?
Have you ever had recurrent pain and stiffness in your shoulder? If so, you may have a “frozen shoulder”. “It is also sometimes called adhesive capsulitis of the shoulder joint. It’s a bit of a mouthful, and the cause is still unclear. However, it is often possible to gradually recover from this condition through treatment. I would like to explain the characteristics of this disease and how to treat it in simple terms.
The first symptom you will feel is often shoulder pain, as if you had hurt your shoulder at some point. In addition, the pain worsens when you move the shoulder joint, sometimes it prevents you from sleeping, sometimes the pain is accompanied by stiffness that prevents you from doing your daily tasks; in severe cases, you cannot lift or rotate your upper arm.
Who is more likely to get “frozen shoulder”?
Women are more likely to get this disease than men. It is most common in women over the age of 40. Sometimes, people who have injured their shoulder joint before can develop “frozen shoulder” later in life.
3. Know your shoulder joint
The shoulder joint is a very complex structure with many ligaments, muscles and tendons involved in making up the joint. With the shoulder joint, you can lift, rotate and swing. However, if a “frozen shoulder” occurs, some parts of the shoulder joint become contracted, which restricts movement and causes stiffness and significant pain.
4. How to diagnose “frozen shoulder
To determine if you have a frozen shoulder, your doctor will need to take a detailed medical history and check the mobility of the shoulder joint. The doctor will gently lift your upper arm, sometimes rotating it, to check how flexible the joint is and whether it causes any pain.
Next, we will do imaging of the shoulder joint. The first step is to take x-rays, including an orthopantomogram of the shoulder joint, and sometimes additional films of specific positions, which the doctor will talk to the radiologist about and ask them to take as required. After you have ruled out other problems such as rotator cuff injury, which means that your examination is basically normal, you will be diagnosed with “frozen shoulder”.
V. Self-treatment of “frozen shoulder
The first thing you can do is to have the patient do some special exercises, preferably under the guidance of a rehabilitation doctor, to help you move the joint. In this way, the patient’s rehabilitation will be safer and more effective. Unfortunately, in our country, this area has been underappreciated by both doctors and patients, however, guided rehab is an extremely important part of the path to health.
Shoulder Stretching: Stretching is probably the best way to treat a “frozen shoulder”. Stretching on a daily basis can restore flexibility to the joint. However, it is important to be consistent, as shoulder problems are often slow to recover and require a lot of patience. Before stretching, you can do a “pendulum” exercise and gradually increase the size as a warm-up.
Six, here are a few stretching movements.
1.Upward lift. The common “wall climbing” is a kind of upward lift. Straighten the arms forward on the wall or desktop, down the shoulders is also a good way.
2.internal retraction. The affected arm as far as possible on the opposite shoulder, and then use the opposite hand to hold the affected elbow to help push the opposite shoulder.
3.Internal rotation. Bringing the affected side’s arm around behind the body and touching it as high as possible, then the hand on the healthy side grasps the affected side’s wrist to help push it up.
4.External rotation. Stand by the door with your upper arm close to your upper body or up, bend your elbow, lean your hand against the door frame, and then rotate your body to stretch the front of the shoulder joint.
There are several tips about stretching exercises.
1. you can take anti-inflammatory and analgesic medication one hour before the activity so that the pain will be reduced during the activity.
2.You can also take a hot bath or do hot compresses first, the adhesions will be softened and the joint can be relaxed.
3, oil massage also has a good relaxation effect.
4.After the activity, you can use an ice pack or cold towel to apply a cold compress on the affected area for a few minutes, which can reduce the swelling and pain after exercise.
Seven, invasive treatment
Or just called invasive treatment. When self-treatment does not work, you should seek help from your doctor and seek further active treatment. This is important because adhesions can cause great inconvenience and pain when they worsen. Of course, self-exercise should continue!
First, consider hormonal closure. Cortisone suppresses the swelling and pain caused by the inflammatory response. The pain can be significantly reduced by injecting the solution directly into the joint cavity or subacromial space, allowing you to complete your extension exercises. However, closure by itself does not solve this shoulder problem and is sometimes short-lived or even ineffective. A manual release under anesthesia is also an option. However, this type of release carries a risk of fracture dislocation in older adults with osteoporosis and is often not complete because it is impossible to completely release the adherent joint capsule and ligaments.
The next step is to consider surgery. The good news is that shoulder arthroscopy is now mainstream, with minimally invasive surgery, more thorough treatment, and faster recovery. Through several small holes in the shoulder, arthroscopic instruments can penetrate deep into the joint and loosen the ring of the adherent capsule. This step is performed under general anesthesia. Stretching exercises can be continued the same day or a day after the surgery.
With consistent exercise and aggressive adjunctive treatment measures, “frozen shoulder” can be overcome!