Sometimes shoulder pain is very severe. Patient cannot often move their arm. In this blog I will explain the three most common shoulder injuries that are responsible of this condition.
- Calcific shoulder tendinitis
Patients often experience severe shoulder pain that awaken them at night and they cannot move their shoulder. The most frequent cause is calcific shoulder tendinitis. Calcium deposits form on the shoulder rotator cuff tendons and cause inflammations at the tissues surrounding it. Also they reduce the space (subacromial space) between the shoulder tendons and the acromion causing an impingement during movement.
The classical treatment of this condition is to give anti-inflammatory drugs and to do a physical rehabilitation over a long period of time. Sometimes, in case of failure, we do an arthroscopic surgery. We remove the calcium depots and we decompress the subacromial space during surgery.
In my opinion this classical treatment takes often a lot of time. In our daily practice we can offer a quicker and efficient technique in order to have a fast recovery. Under ultrasonography we inject a drug (steroid) in and around the calcium deposits. The inflammation diminishes and the calcium deposits will vanish after few days or months. The pain will go away very quickly.
- Adhesive capsulitis
This condition is known as “frozen shoulder”. The ligaments and capsule around the shoulder become tighten up. The patients lose active and passive movement of their shoulder. They cannot move it!
The classical treatment is to give analgesics and to do a very long physical therapy program. Some patients take a year to have a full recovery. In very rare cases we operate these patients.
We can offer a “novel” technique in order to help these patients and to have a very fast recovery. Generally we put an anesthetic agent around the shoulder nerves under ultrasonography and we mobilize the shoulder to break the stiffness. Pain is relieved quicker, patients gain mobility and they recover after one month of physical rehabilitation instead of one year!
- Rotator cuff tear
Because the impingement between the shoulder tendons and acromion are very frequent, patients have a ruptured tendon. This rupture can be an incomplete and a complete tear.
Generally I operate patients with a complete tear. I do a shoulder arthroscopy and I reinsert the tendon to the bone.
When I have a partial tear I treat it without surgery with an infiltration under ultrasonography and a proper physical treatment regimen.