Frozen shoulder is caused by inflammation of the shoulder joint capsule. In the early stages, this inflammation causes shoulder pain. Later, the shoulder joint capsule becomes thicker, making frozen shoulder symptoms worse and eventually leading to frozen shoulder. Symptoms of frozen shoulder can be easily observed as follows:
- Chronic shoulder pain or severe pain at night
- Cannot lift that arm as well as the normal arm. Cannot lift the arm to the ear.
- Unable to fasten bra hooks from the back / Unable to scratch back (Image 1)
- Can't lift my arm to put on clothes
- Can't reach out to grab something from behind
The cause of frozen shoulder is still unknown, but it is found that people with diabetes or thyroid disease have a higher chance of developing this disease. Sometimes patients may have a minor accident beforehand or may have inflammation of the shoulder tendons, causing the patient to use that arm less because they think it is painful and must rest. When the body tells the patient to rest the arm, the symptoms of frozen shoulder become more severe as the disease progresses.
The good news for our readers is that frozen shoulder can heal on its own. However, the healing process is slow, with the time from onset to complete recovery being as long as two years, depending on the stage of the disease. Most patients, once they have symptoms, have to suffer for as long as two years until they are completely healed due to the stage of the disease itself. Options that can help patients include the following initial approaches:
- In the early stages of the disease with inflammation, patients will experience severe pain and cannot do physical therapy. Therefore, they must receive supportive treatment.Take pain relievers and anti-inflammatory drugs.Go ahead.
- Do physical therapy By manipulating the shoulder joint to be able to lift the arm higher, it can be done once the pain has started to decrease. It can be done by yourself, such as climbing a wall or using your hands to slide on a table (Figure 2). The patient may come to the hospital for physical therapy, where the physical therapist will use various tools, such as compresses or an ultrasound machine, to reduce inflammation before beginning to manipulate the shoulder joint.
- InjectionTo reduce inflammation in the shoulder joint, steroid injections are injected into the shoulder joint to reduce inflammation, which will help reduce shoulder pain and make physical therapy easier.
- Laparoscopic surgery This is considered the last resort for patients with severe frozen shoulder and who have not improved their symptoms after all other treatments. The doctor will perform an arthroscopy into the shoulder joint and use various instruments to remove the thickened and hardened inflamed shoulder joint membrane (Image 3) and manipulate the shoulder joint in the operating room until the arm can be fully raised.
However, it is important for all readers to know that there are many causes of shoulder pain besides frozen shoulder, such as torn shoulder tendons. If you start to have shoulder pain, you should not leave it untreated, but should consult a specialist to diagnose the correct cause and receive timely appropriate treatment. Finally, I would like to say that “shoulder pain that comes and goes is more dangerous than you think.”
illustration
Image of 1 Symptoms of frozen shoulder patients who cannot lift their hands to scratch their backs
Image of 2 Self-physical therapy for patients with frozen shoulder by sliding your hands on a table to stretch the shoulder joint. Slide your hands forward as far as you can stand the pain. Hold this position for 10 seconds and repeat 10 times.
Picture 3 Arthroscopic shoulder surgery image shows the inflamed, thickened, and calcified shoulder joint capsule (arrow).
