Frozen shoulder
What is frozen shoulder?
The medical names for frozen shoulder are adhesive capsulitis of the shoulder and frozen shoulder. In Korean it is called "fifties shoulder" because it mainly affects people in middle age, but frequent smartphone use and poor lifestyle habits now bring it on at any age, so caution is needed. Frozen shoulder, or adhesive capsulitis, is the condition in which inflammatory change and loss of elasticity in the shoulder joint capsule, caused by minor but repeated trauma, overuse, prolonged immobilization after surgery, diabetes and similar factors, restrict movement of the shoulder joint.
Symptoms
- 1
- Pain across the whole shoulder makes movement difficult.
- 2
- Pain is severe at night, waking you frequently.
- 3
- The shoulder hurts so badly that even a brush of clothing is painful.
- 4
- Pain occurs not only in the shoulder but down to the hand.
Shoulder pain appears without any particular injury, It can be divided into three stages by phase.
The early freezing stage, in which pain and
stiffness gradually worsen.
Patients report more severe pain
when trying to move the arm quickly.
This process unfolds over 3~6 months.
The frozen stage: pain is less than in the painful stage,
but stiffness becomes more severe.
Reaching for objects on a shelf, putting on underwear, washing or combing hair
and getting dressed become
difficult.
This is the stage in which the shoulder loosens: pain decreases and the stiffness gradually resolves, so most patients recover naturally.
The natural course of frozen shoulder is known to be relatively favorable, but restricted shoulder movement may remain and interfere with daily activities such as fastening a belt or getting dressed.
For frozen shoulder, early treatment is most important.
Even if it can resolve on its own, pain management is needed because the pain may last for years.
Leaving it alone in the hope that it will heal by itself can lead to severe restriction of movement or make treatment difficult.
Diagnosis and Treatment
Diagnosis is made by history taking, physical examination, X-ray, ultrasound, MRI and infrared thermography.
Along with self-directed exercise to relieve shoulder pain and restore joint motion, symptoms are treated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory analgesics, intra-articular steroid injections, intra-articular lubricant injections and PDRN (DNA) injection therapy.
If symptoms do not improve with non-surgical treatment, or if inflammation of the joint capsule progresses and damages the joint so severely that daily life is restricted, a detailed examination using joint endoscopy is performed together with surgery to release the joint capsule.
- Pain occurs across the entire shoulder.
- The shoulder cannot be moved.
- You cannot raise your arm on your own.
- The arm will not lift even with help.
- Pain occurs only in one specific part of the shoulder.
- Raising the arm causes a catching sensation or pain, and the arm feels weak.
- The arm can be raised with another person's help.