Injuries and conditions: shoulder pain

FROZEN SHOULDER
What is it? A tightness and inflammation of the capsule around your shoulder joint. This makes a very stiff and painful shoulder that restricts movement and can affect your sleep. We will firstly try to reduce your pain and then focus on getting your movement and use of your arm back.

OSTEOARTHRITIS (OA)
This is a fancy name for wear and tear that can happen in many of your joints, most common being knees, hips, back, neck, shoulders and fingers. The joint becomes worn like a rusty chain on a bike and causes pain. Commonly aggravated by the cold and wet weather.  Physiotherapy can be very helpful with OA using treatments such as mobilisation, exercises, acupuncture etc.

POST OPERATION
Shoulder operations are becoming more popular these days as techniques improve. Thankfully we work very closely with an orthopaedic shoulder specialist Mr Francis Lam (please see testimonials page). He sends a lot of patients to us after their operation as well as seeing our patients that need more investigation or more help than physio is able to provide. We aim to keep away from operations as much as possible but sometimes a little more help is needed.

ROTATOR CUFF
The rotator cuff are 4 small yet very important muscles that stabilise your shoulder joint. They hold the ball in the socket joint and must be strong for the shoulder to work well. If injured/ torn they can give deep shoulder pain or referred pain down the arm. They can be injured acutely in a sporting injury or be part of the wear and tear process.

SHOULDER IMPINGEMENT
There are various structures that can get pinched in your shoulder including muscle, tendons, capsule and bursa. It is important to rehabilitate this properly as this condition tends to get worse if not treated.

SHOULDER DISLOCATION
This is where your ball comes out your socket joint and can be very painful in the process. Normally caused by an acute sports injury but not always. Commonly re-occurs which is why treatment and strengthening is really important after injury.

SHOULDER PAIN
There are many structures in the shoulder that can give pain including bursa, muscles, ligaments, tendons, joints and labrum. The shoulder can commonly send pain down the arm towards the elbow. Two of the most common injuries to the shoulder are osteoarthritis to the joint and rotator cuff injuries.

SPORTS INJURY
Please see our sports injury page. The most common sporting injuries for the shoulder are; rotator cuff injuries, shoulder dislocation and labral tears which is a tear of the soft cartilage in your shoulder joint.

THORACIC OUTLET SYNDROME
This injury is where the nerves exiting the neck and thorax are affected resulting in pain, weakness, numbness or pins and needles anywhere between your neck and fingers. Commonly presents as shoulder pain. It is important to get this assessed and treated as soon as possible as there are many structures that can be affected.

WEAR AND TEAR
See osteoarthritis

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