Frozen Shoulder

The most common cause of debilitating shoulder pain in elderlies is Frozen Shoulder unless proven otherwise. In this article, we look at the various symptoms, diagnosis & treatment for the same.

Frozen shoulder is one of the most common and debilitating conditions of the shoulder affecting people of advance age. In frozen shoulder, the capsule of the synovial shoulder joint contacts leading to symptoms like pain, specifically night pain leading to insomnia and loss of movement of affected shoulder, majorly overhead abduction. Frozen shoulder affects a large proportion of Diabetic people, though the cause of this not clear. Diagnosis is generally made on history and examination and no investigations are generally required. In cases, where the frozen shoulder is occurring as a complication of a previous shoulder condition like shoulder trauma or shoulder surgery or in cases, where frozen shoulder is occurring in pre-existing shoulder conditions like subacromial bursitis or rotator cuff injuries, X-Ray or MRI of the shoulder may be advised. Physiotherapy forms the mainstay of treatment in frozen shoulder and the rehabilitation is a long and slow process during which patients may get frustrated with the slow recovery. Oral painkillers are prescribed to help with physiotherapy and to get adequate sleep.

Local corticosteroid injections in the shoulder go a long way in enabling physiotherapy painlessly and are now commonly prescribed to lessen the suffering of the patient.

Another method of shortening the natural course of the disease is dilatation of the capsule of shoulder joint by injecting sterile fluid in it, which can be done after cortisone injection through the same needle or through arthroscopic surgery in complicated cases, where the other complicated factors can be dealt at the same time through key hole surgery.