It’s really “frozen shoulder”

  ”Frozen shoulder is a relatively common clinical condition, but it is biased to attribute all pain and limited movement in the shoulder joint to frozen shoulder. Frozen shoulder in the true sense of the word is a self-limiting disease of unknown etiology that occurs between the ages of 40 and 50. The diagnosis of frozen shoulder is a diagnosis of exclusion, which means that all diseases that may cause shoulder pain and limitation of motion, such as rotator cuff injury, rotator cuff impingement, calcific rotator cuff tendonitis, etc., need to be excluded before a diagnosis can be made.  The highest incidence of shoulder disorders is rotator cuff injury, which accounts for 30-40% of shoulder disorders. Rotator cuff injury is a very common degenerative disease of the shoulder joint, and its occurrence is positively correlated with age. Athletes, those who lift heavy objects, and those who suffer from traumatic injuries are prone to rotator cuff injuries. Typical symptoms are pain in the neck and shoulder at night and pain in the arm when lifting; sometimes they are afraid to sleep on the affected side and even wake up with pain; the shoulder joint can be weak when abducting, lifting or posterior extension, and sometimes there are difficulties even in personal hygiene, which seriously affects the patient’s life.  The treatment of rotator cuff injury should be based on the patient’s specific condition to develop a treatment plan. If the patient does not have acute onset characteristics and has a short history, and there are no signs of huge subacromial spurs or rotator cuff tears on X-ray and MRI, conservative treatment, including subacromial closed injections and physical therapy, can be considered first. If conservative treatment is ineffective or if the patient has sudden progression of shoulder pain and weakness within a short period of time, and there is clear evidence of tendon tear on imaging, then surgery is recommended. Currently, the main treatment method is arthroscopic shoulder surgery, which involves removing the enlarged subacromial spur and applying suture anchors to repair and reconstruct the ruptured rotator cuff tendon tissue. Since the shoulder arthroscopy does not require the destruction of the deltoid stop on the acromion, the postoperative recovery process is fast and the chance of adhesions in the shoulder joint is significantly reduced, and the functional recovery is naturally smoother.  Calcific rotator cuff tendonitis, which is the ectopic deposition of calcium in the rotator cuff tendon. Patients often experience sudden onset of severe pain in the rotator cuff, which is exacerbated by any slight movement of the rotator cuff. A radiograph may reveal a mass of calcified foci of varying size near the large nodules of the shoulder joint. If left untreated, this type of patient will have recurrent shoulder pain. Arthroscopic surgery to locate the calcified foci and remove them, as well as repairing the remaining tears in the tendon, can greatly reduce the duration of the patient’s pain and prevent future degenerative rotator cuff injuries.