Shoulder pain and injury can be caused by wear and tear from work or repetitive movements; injury from a fall or accident; it can be sports related, or caused by a medical condition. Unfortunately, you are more likely to suffer from shoulder problems as you grow older as the soft tissues surrounding the shoulder tend to degenerate with age.
If not correctly diagnosed, shoulder injuries can lead to chronic pain and restricted movement, impairing your ability to perform everyday tasks.
Shoulder problems and pain can be caused by:
- Rotator cuff
- Tendinitis caused by overuse and reaching (painters and tennis players experience this injury)
- Bursitis – inflammation
- Strains and tears – accidents and injury
- Frozen shoulder – caused by inflammation
- Arthritis
- Degenerative arthritis Wear-and-tear arthritis
- Rheumatoid arthritis
Painful shoulder conditions that limit movement are common, and are caused by problems with the shoulder joint and its surrounding structures.
Shoulder Pain Treatment :
- Medications to reduce the pain
- These may be simple over the counter medications or can be medications prescribed by your pain specialist. Medications might include muscle relaxants or nerve pain medications (neuropathic pain medications). Sometimes analgesic compound creams are used to ease pain.
- Pain interventions
- Injection therapies can be used to target, diagnose and manage chronic pain caused by muscle, joint and nerve pain.
- It includes interventional therapies like nerve blocks (medial branch nerve, third occipital nerve, cervical nerve roots, greater and/or lesser occipital nerves) radiofrequency ablation (RFA), pulsed radiofrequency (PRF) and epidural and nerve root steroid injections. Sympathetic nerve blocks can also be performed.
- Some of these therapies can be focused on various structures that might be causing or making the pain worse like the glenohumoral joint, the acromio-clavicular joint, the subacromial bursae, muscle trigger points, the brachial plexus, the spinal nerve roots and other nerves around the shoulder. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP injections) can also be used in some locations around this area.
- Nerve stimulation or neuromodulation techniques
- Advanced pain reduction strategies may include spinal cord stimulation for severe neck pain. Some forms of spinal cord stimulation are high frequency stimulation (HF10), tonic stimulation, multi-waveform stimulation, burst DR stimulation and even DRG stimulation.
- Surgery
- Generally recommended when tests show structural changes, which need corrective surgery. When other therapies fail, surgery may be considered an option to relieve pain caused by serious musculoskeletal injuries or nerve compression. These are typically performed by an orthopaedic surgeon. Types of surgery might include, arthroscopy, stabilisation surgery, decompression surgery joint replacement surgery.
- Rehabilitation
- Most types of chronic pain treatment should be managed alongside some form of specialist rehabilitation. This is when the best results occur.
