Frozen shoulder

What causes Frozen shoulder and treatment options for it?

Frozen shoulder, also known as adhesive capsulitis, is a condition characterised by stiffness and pain in your shoulder joint. Signs and symptoms typically begin gradually, worsen over time and then resolve, usually within one to three years. 

CAUSES:

It is often not clear why people get a frozen shoulder.

Frozen shoulder happens when the tissue around your shoulder joint becomes inflamed.The tissue then gets tighter and shrinks, which causes pain.

Frozen shoulder can happen because:

• Frozen shoulder most commonly affects people between the ages of 40 and 60, and occurs in women more often than men. 
• you had an injury or surgery that keeps you from moving your arm normally
• you have diabetes – it’s still unclear why this is, but in people with diabetes are at an increased risk for developing frozen shoulder. 

TREATMENTS:

Frozen shoulder generally gets better over time, although it may take up to 3 years. The focus of treatment is to control pain and restore motion and strength.

NHS and various other research have broadly suggested treatment should focus on 3 main aspect:

1. Pain relief – avoid movements that cause you pain. Only move your shoulder gently. 
2. Stronger pain and swelling relief – Use paracetamol or ibuprofen to ease pain/swelling. Steroid injections in your shoulder to bring down the swelling. 
3. Getting movement back – shoulder exercises once it’s less painful. This can be at home or with our physiotherapist.
4. Hydrodilatation (optional) : If your symptoms are not relieved by other nonsurgical methods, then the recommendation is to consider hydrodilatation. This procedure involves gently injecting a large volume of sterile fluid into the shoulder joint to expand and stretch the shoulder joint capsule. Hydrodilatation is conducted  under ultrasound imaging  to guide the placement of fluid (This is not usually required and hence not included in the package of care)

At Smile & Move Polyclinic we aim to get you a mix of these treatments depending on how painful and stiff your shoulder is. 

Our physiotherapist will first check how much movement you have in your shoulders and will then suggest treatments which can include:

• Stretching Exercises
• Strength Exercises
• Good Posture Advice
• Pain Relief Advice &
• Steroid Injection

Check out our Pricing by clicking the button below:

Pricing