Frozen shoulder / Adhesive capsulitis
Frozen shoulder
Why do you get Frozen Shoulder? The capsule around the shoulder joint becomes affected and numb, which causes pain and stiffness. This can start after, for example, you have fallen and injured your shoulder, after shoulder surgery, or for no clear reason. Why the capsule reacts the way it does is not known. It is also not known why both pain and stiffness eventually disappear in most cases. Sometimes you also get Frozen Shoulder/Adhesive Capsulitis in the other arm, but it is unusual to get it in both arms at the same time. Around three percent of the population gets Frozen Shoulder. It is more common among women and the most common age to be affected is between 40-60 years. There is a higher risk of getting Frozen Shoulder/Adhesive Capsulitis if you have diabetes or if the thyroid gland produces too few hormones, hypothyroidism.
Symptoms of Frozen shoulder/Adhesive capsulitis
It usually starts with gradually increasing pain in the shoulder. Often pain on the front and or outside of the upper arm, shoulder. The pain is often sharp and comes on with movement and straining of the arm. Also common is dull pain in the shoulder at night. Within six months, stiffness in the shoulder usually sets in. Stiffness with pain in the outer positions. Difficulty turning the arm out and lifting it to the side is usually common. It can become difficult with everyday movements such as combing and washing hair, taking off a shirt and buttoning a bra. After a number of months, the pain and ache usually gradually subside. The stiffness remains, which then lasts for another period. This is roughly how the majority of patients experience the period of discomfort. However, the intensity of pain, stiffness and how long the discomfort lasts vary.
Treatment of Frozen shoulder/Adhesive capulitis
Early in this disease scenario, it can be difficult to make the correct diagnosis. It is easy to mistake other diagnoses with similar symptoms. However, as rest pain and increasing stiffness enter the symptom picture, it becomes easier. In order to be able to make the diagnosis with greater certainty, we are happy to perform an ultrasound examination as a complement to the manual examination. With ultrasound diagnostics, we cannot find any direct, certain signs of Frozen shoulder/Adhesive capsulitis, but if no other findings are made that can explain the symptoms, the suspicion that it is a frozen shoulder is strengthened. In the painful and stiff phase, treatment is about pain relief and trying to find movements that allow the patient to move the arm as much as possible without increasing the pain. If rest pain is present, we usually offer an ultrasound-guided cortisone injection that is placed in the shoulder joint. This can provide good relief from the pain but does not affect the stiffness. When the pain begins to subside, we can begin to work manually with the shoulder and gradually increase training to speed up the restoration of function in the shoulder.
Forecast
Two to 3 years is the time it usually takes for this diagnosis to heal. Most people make a full recovery. In some cases, you may have to live with some pain and/or some residual stiffness in the shoulder.
