| Frozen Shoulder Causes |
 Frozen shoulder syndrome has several synonyms such as adhesive capsulitis or rotator cuff syndrome. According to the Mayo Clinic, Frozen shoulder could be caused by autoimmune disease due to the high incidence of Frozen shoulder in people with diabetes. frozen shoulder or Adhesive capsulitis is a painful condition. It results in a severe loss of motion in the shoulder. It may follow an injury, or it may arise gradually with no injury or warning. frozen shoulder literally means sticky joint capsule. As the shoulder is inflamed it can cause either right shoulder pain or left shoulder pain or both. The 'sticking' of shoulder makes the joint stiff and difficult to move. Most patients say their shoulder feels still and feel painful to move it in certain directions.
What are the symptoms of frozen shoulder? Most people shoulder pain and limited movement in the joint. Whether you are trying to move the shoulder yourself or someone else is trying to move the arm for you. There comes a point in each direction of movement where the motion simply stops, as if something is blocking it. At this point, the shoulder usually hurts. The shoulder can also be quite painful at night. The tightness in the shoulder can make it difficult to do regular activities like getting dressed, combing your hair, or reaching across a table. The pain and considerable stiffness caused by Frozen Shoulder Syndrome is worsened by struggling to restore and create movement with physical therapy, Chinese Tui Na methods, painful stretching exercises, or forced passive (assisted) motion therapies in some modalities. The diagnosis of frozen shoulder is usually made on the basis of your medical history and physical examination. One key finding that helps differentiate a frozen shoulder from a rotator cuff tear is how the shoulder moves. With frozen shoulder, the shoulder motion is the same whether the patient or the doctor tries to move the arm. With a rotator cuff tear, the patient cannot move the arm. But when someone else lifts the arm it can be moved in a nearly normal range of motion. As oppose to natural therapies chiropractic treamtents for frozen shoulder, medical treatment of frozen shoulder may be an injection of cortisone and a long-acting anesthetic, similar to Novocain, to get the inflammation under control. Cortisone is a steroid that is very effective at reducing inflammation. Controlling the inflammation relieves some pain and allows the chiropractic treatments to be more effective. In some cases, it helps to inject a long-acting anesthetic with the cortisone right before a chiropractic session. This allows the chiropractic doctor to manually break up the adhesions while the shoulder is numb from the anesthetic. We DO NOT practice this form of procedure in our office. Medical doctors often employ manipulation under anesthesia (MUA) which we do not reccommend until your have tried conservative treatment such as chiropractic care for frozen shoulder. This means you are put to sleep with general anesthesia. Then the doctor aggressively stretches your shoulder joint. The heavy action of the manipulation stretches the shoulder joint capsule and breaks up the scar tissue. In most cases, the manipulation improves motion in the joint faster than allowing nature to take its course. You may need this procedure more than once. This procedure has risks. There is a very slight chance the stretching can injure the nerves of the brachial plexus, the network of nerves running to your arm. And there is a risk of fracturing the humerus (the bone of the upper arm), especially in people who have osteoporosis (fragile bones). Frozen shoulder chiropractic treatment are a critical part of helping you regain the motion and function of your shoulder. Treatments of frozen shoulder are initially directed at getting the muscles to relax. Joint manipulation of the shoulder can really speed the recovery process. This is where chiropractic manipulation has an advantage over other specialties. It is important to manipulate and stretch capsular joint restrictions during the treatment phase. You will also be given exercises and stretches to do as part of a home program. Treatment of some frozen shoulders can be frustrating and slow. Most cases eventually improve, but the process may take months. The goal of your initial treatment is to decrease inflammation and increase the range of motion of the shoulder. |
