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All to Know about Frozen Shoulder

What?

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Frozen shoulder commonly as known adhesive capsulitis, is a shoulder ailment that restricts the individual’s motion rang. In this condition, the tissues in the patient’s shoulder joint get thicker and tense, and scar tissues grow over the course of time; so that, the shoulder joint does not have enough space to rotate appropriately. Common signs and symptoms of the condition might be inflammation, pain, and stiffness. The disorder happens mostly in those aged between 40 and 60.


Symptoms

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Two leading symptoms of a frozen condition are pain and continuous stiffness in the shoulder joint.
Due to pain in the shoulder joint and its consequent limitation, the condition makes everyday activities too difficult to be performed. The patient might find it difficult to carryout bathing, dressing, driving, or even sleeping.
Depending on the severity of the condition, the symptoms may vary from moderate in the shoulder to severe pain and the patient’s lack of ability to move his shoulder correctly and properly.
If there is a pain and stiffness in the shoulder, the individual should pay his doctor a visit.
Risk factors
A risk factor is the thing that raises the risk of growing a disease.
Prevalent risk factors for frozen shoulder are as follows:
•    Age. Those with more than 40 years of age.
•    Women. 70 present of those with frozen shoulder condition are females.
•    Surgery. Those who have recently had an arm fracture or a surgery
•    Diabetes. Although the reason is still unknown, people with diabetes are four times more likely to get frozen shoulder and their symptoms could be more serious.
•    Stroke. Those suffered a stroke.
•    Overactive thyroid.
•    Underactive thyroid.
•    Heart disease
•    Parkinson's disease.
Frozen shoulder mostly occurs in females aged 40 or over.

Diagnosis

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Since frozen shoulder affects both active and passive range of motion, in the time of physical examination, the doctor probably wants the patient to move in certain ways so that to he’ll be able to check for pain and assess the active range of motion then the doctor may want the patient to relax his muscles while he moves and rotate the arm in order to check the passive range of motion.
In some of the cases, the physician may inject anesthetic medications into the shoulder before determining the individual passive and active range of motion.
Frozen shoulder typically is diagnosed merely base on the signs and symptoms. However, the physician might prescribe some imaging tests, including X-rays or an MRI) in order to make sure that the cause of the symptoms is not another problem.

Treatment

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A frozen shoulder could be left untreated. However, the pain and stiffness could remain for a long time of three years. One or a combination of physical therapy, medication, surgery, and home care could be effective in improving the condition.
Physical Therapy
The most common type of treatment for a frozen shoulder is physical therapy. The therapy aims at stretching the shoulder joint and recovering the motion which has been lost. It may take as fast as few weeks or as long as nine months to see the improvement. A home program for exercising and performing physical activities to activate the motion range is also helpful.

Medications


The doctor may recommend an anti- inflammatory medicines such as aspirin, ibuprofen, or naproxen sodium in order to treat relive the pain and reduce joint swell. An injection steroid into the shoulder joint could also be helpful.


Home Care


Placing ice pack for 15 minutes on the shoulder many times a day could effective in decreasing the pain. A physical therapist could suggest instructions on the kinds of physical activites the patient should do, how many times do them, how often perform them, and when to push harder. Most of the people with a frozen shoulder can recover from condition without surgery.


Surgery


When physical therapy does not improve the frozen shoulder, surgery is considered. At the time of surgery the physician, under a general anesthetic, manipulates the shoulder and put it through a full range of motion so that the adhesions could be broken up. Another helpful type of surgery is arthroscopic surgery. During this procedure, a small cut in the shoulder is created and with a use of a camera known as “arthroscope” the scar tissue is removed. This helps the shoulder to get back. For those frozen shoulder that are the result of injuries, the most successful method is surgery. However in order to get the best results it should be performed within a few weeks of the injury.
Typically the surgery is done on an outpatient basis. The stitches could be removed within 10 days. Also, typically postoperative physical therapy is needed. It takes almost 3 months for most of the patients to gain their full range of motion back.
Basically surgery has risks with itself and some people still have pain or stiffness even after performing a surgery and some people can’t handle the pain of physical therapy; therefore, a consulting session with the doctor is recommended.

 


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