Adhesive Capsulitis pain can be debilitating. In this article we’re going to look at what causes frozen shoulder, how you would get diagnosed with frozen shoulder, and what your options are if you have pain from Frozen shoulder.
Starting off, what is Frozen shoulder? Frozen shoulder is basically just chronic stiffness of your shoulder joint. Anatomically the stiffness is between the humerus (upper arm bone) and scapule (shoulder blade). Adhesive Capsulitis can come on after a period of disuse of the arm. Unfortunately frozen shoulder can appear for no obvious reason. Frozen shoulder can be particularly severe in individuals with diabetes.
According to the University of Washington Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine there are three different areas that used to diagnose Adhesive Capsulitis:
A. History
1. Functionally significant restriction of shoulder motion
2. Absence of history of previous major shoulder injury or surgery
B. Physical examination
1. Limited glenohumeral motion in all directions
C. Radiographs
1. No changes in cartilaginous joint space
2. Absence of pathological changes other than osteopenia
If you have Frozen shoulder then you have a couple different options in regard how to get rid of it. You can get surgery. This is neccessary in about 20% of cases. That means that 80% of the time your don’t need surgery to get rid of frozen shoulder. In regards to treatment what are your options if you don’t want surgery? There are different frozen shoulder exercises you can do and specific techniques that you can use to loosen up your shoulder joint. While this may sound complicated, if you have proper guidance, it is pretty simple and can be done in your own home.
To conlude. Adhesive Capsulitis is another way of describing chronic stiffness of the shoulder. There are specific criteria in regards to your medical history, shoulder movement, and radiograph findings that if met would give you the official ‘frozen shoulder’ diagnosis. You don’t always need surgery to get rid of Frozen shoulder, instead you can use exercises and soft tissue (i.e. massage techniques) to stop pain and gain motion back in your shoulder.
