Pain is one of the symptoms of a disease, an unpleasant sensation with which the body signals the development of a pathological process. When pain appears in the left shoulder joint, there can be various reasons - pain can occur immediately after an injury or some time after it, as a result of the development of an infectious lesion of organs or tissues, or an inflammatory process. The pain can be aching, sharp, constant or intermittent. Depending on the pain syndrome, certain symptoms, changes in blood counts, the disease is diagnosed based on ultrasound, CT, and MRI studies.
In the therapeutic department of the Yusupov Hospital, joint diseases are diagnosed using modern medical equipment. Rheumatologists use modern techniques and innovative drugs to restore joint function. Treatment of diseases of the right and left shoulder joint is carried out with the help of hormonal therapy, physiotherapeutic procedures, massage, drug therapy, and in severe cases, surgical assistance is provided. Rehabilitation of patients is carried out in the rehabilitation center of the hospital.
How does pain manifest when the arm is abducted?
Pain when abducting the arm often becomes an attribute of many serious pathologies of the musculo-ligamentous apparatus of the shoulder joint. Therefore, this symptom, to one degree or another, may be accompanied by:
- defeat from the working hand;
- painful sensations on palpation;
- localization of pain along the anterolateral humeral surface;
- increased pain at night;
Often pain when abducting the arm is characterized as:
- strong;
- aching (pulling character);
- spicy.
Diagnostics
Diagnostics
For the differential diagnosis of reflected pain, electrocardiography (ECG) and methods for visualizing the structures of the cervical spine are used.
How common is pain when abducting the arm?
This symptom is recorded predominantly in men, especially those in the age range of 40 years and older, although it can also be observed at a young age. Those most susceptible to it may be:
- young people after shoulder injury;
- elderly people (due to natural age-related changes in the musculoskeletal and joint system);
- representatives of professions that involve lifting and carrying heavy objects (for example, loaders, builders, blacksmiths);
- people performing monotonous non-standard movements with shoulder tension (for example, when painting a room, etc.);
- professional throwing athletes (for example, volleyball players, discus or javelin throwers, tennis players);
- computer scientists and people who work on laptops for a long time (due to inactivity and the predominance of a forced posture).
Atherosclerosis
Atherosclerosis of the upper extremities is much less common than the lower extremities, but brings no less suffering to the patient. The disease begins with the deposition of small amounts of lipids on the walls of blood vessels. In the initial stage of development of atherosclerosis, these symptoms are invisible, but when more than half of the lumen of the vessel is blocked, patients begin to feel obvious signs of the disease.
IMPORTANT! A complication of the disease is blood clots. Blood elements are retained in lipid formation, which provokes a blood clot. When a blood clot breaks off, it easily reaches vital vessels and can lead to death.
If the vessels of the upper extremities affected by cholesterol plaques do not allow sufficient blood to pass through, then the nervous and muscle tissues suffer. Symptoms of atherosclerosis include the following:
- In the first, compensated stage, patients experience only minor deviations in health. Hands can freeze in the cold; they are overly sensitive to temperature changes.
- In the second stage, symptoms become more pronounced. The reaction to cold may be accompanied by cramps in the hands. They quickly get tired of even minor work.
- The third stage is manifested by a significant deterioration in the functioning of the upper extremities. The skin on the arms and in the area of the hands becomes thinner, the vessels become translucent and characteristic blue vessels protrude. The patient suffers from pain in the arms from the hand to the elbow, cramps, and numbness.
- In the last stage, severe symptoms of the disease appear. Atherosclerosis of blood vessels leads to tissue death and gangrene. Hands become more and more blue and cold. Trophic ulcers may appear. It is extremely difficult for patients to perform the most common operations, and the pain appears not only in the hand area - the forearm and the area under the collarbone hurt.
As a treatment for atherosclerosis, patients will be recommended tableted blood thinners. Doctors insist on including ten minutes of hand exercises in your daily schedule. It is necessary to give up bad habits, normalize weight if necessary, and take vitamins.
What diseases can be associated with pain when abducting the arm?
Typically, this symptom indicates chronic overstrain of the shoulder muscles (especially against the background of their physical weakness) and the supraspinal tendon. The syndrome, accompanied by similar pain sensations against the background of shoulder stiffness, is called glenohumeral periarthritis. It is observed in almost 80% of all shoulder problems and consists of the development of inflammation in the shoulder joint, in the vast majority - due to jerking loads on the arm.
In this case, damage occurs to the rotator cuff (the complex of muscles and tendons surrounding the shoulder joint that ensure its movement), and pain occurs due to damage (up to rupture) of the shoulder tendons after non-standard movements of the arm (usually a day later). Often pain manifests itself most clearly depending on the location of the site of inflammation (in certain muscles and tendons), which is determined at different amplitudes and directions of abduction of the arm, with and without load on it.
In the vast majority of cases, pain that occurs when the arm is abducted may indicate the presence of such pathological processes and conditions in the patient as:
- capsulitis - consists of stiffness of the shoulder due to pathological narrowing of the shoulder joint;
- tendinitis (inflammatory process affects the tendons) and bursitis (inflammatory process affects the joint capsule) - the development of these pathologies usually occurs simultaneously;
- rupture of muscles and tendons - when moving the shoulder, it can be accompanied by characteristic clicks; in addition to pain, it is accompanied by swelling.
Pain in bones, muscles, joints and forearm
Pain in the left shoulder joint and forearm often occurs with diseases of the heart, liver, spine, after a stroke, heart attack, with hepatitis, pneumonia, cervical osteochondrosis, tumors of tissues and organs of the chest, and with other diseases. Pain may indicate dysfunction of the bones, pathological changes in the tendons:
- The elbow is pressed to the side, the arm turns outwards with the inner side - severe pain indicates a pathological process in the infraspinal tendon.
- Severe pain in the left shoulder joint and forearm when moving the upper limb to the side or forward indicates damage to the supraspinal tendon.
- The elbow is pressed to the side, the arm is turned with the outer side towards the body. Pain in the shoulder with this position of the arm indicates a pathological process in the subscapularis tendon.
Why can't you ignore pain when abducting your arm?
Prolonged ignoring of this symptom and lack of proper treatment can lead to the transition of the inflammatory process into the shoulder joint. This is fraught with loss of joint mobility (the so-called “frozen joint” condition) due to deformation of the internal articular surface. Further, the process of muscle atrophy may begin in the sore arm, which leads to disability. In advanced cases, conservative treatment will be futile; the patient can only be shown endoprosthetics to restore shoulder mobility.
Arthrosis of the shoulder joint
Arthrosis is a degenerative pathological process of a chronic type. Accompanied by deformation, destruction and elimination of cartilage tissue. Against the background of such processes, sections of bones begin to rub against each other, come into close contact, and their destruction begins.
With constant friction, painful sensations arise, they become more pronounced as the pathological process develops. In parallel, osteophytes are formed, joints and bones undergo deformation. The motor function of the joint is lost and becomes limited. In the advanced stage of the disease, a person completely loses the ability to move his shoulder.
In the first stages of development, crunching and clicking appears, and an area of compaction and discomfort occurs. After this, discomfort and severe pain occur. To make a correct diagnosis, you must consult a doctor in a timely manner.
Which doctor should you consult if you have pain when abducting your arm?
At the first manifestation of this symptom, you should immediately contact a good clinic and an orthopedist-traumatologist, who will accurately diagnose the cause of the disease, and, if necessary, prescribe a consultation with related specialists. Only proper diagnosis will help the patient receive adequate treatment and keep the shoulder joint healthy.
Have you or your loved ones started to experience pain when abducting your arm? Don't waste precious time! Qualified medical specialists are always ready to determine the cause of your illness and prescribe the most effective treatment regimen to return your sore shoulder to healthy mobility!
Shoulder Pain Treatment
Treatment of shoulder pain should be carried out strictly individually, taking into account examination data and the established diagnosis. It is performed by an orthopedist-traumatologist or rheumatologist. In case of very severe pain, pain therapy is carried out by an anesthesiologist-resuscitator. A specialist will always find something to treat even very severe shoulder pain.
Diagnostics
A correct diagnosis is the path to prescribing adequate treatment and relieving the patient of pain. In diagnosis, examination and clinical examination of the patient by the attending physician using special assessment tests is of particular importance. They allow you to preliminarily determine which structures were damaged. The location of the damage is determined in more detail using functional tests.
Clinical data are confirmed by laboratory and instrumental studies that reveal inflammatory reactions, the presence or absence of infectious, autoallergic processes, the degree of destruction of articular and periarticular tissues. In identifying tendonitis and capsulitis, the main instrumental diagnostic methods are ultrasound and MRI.
How to treat shoulder pain
Treatment for shoulder pain begins with limiting the load on the affected limb. The patient is allowed movements that he can perform painlessly. Immobilization of the limb (scarf bandage) is carried out in short courses if the severity of the pain syndrome is very great. Prolonged immobilization contributes to the consolidation of hand dysfunction. Today, for partial gentle immobilization, taping is often used - fixing muscles with adhesive tapes in a certain position to prevent injury. This significantly improves the quality of conservative therapy.
After acute pain in the shoulder has been eliminated, treatment is continued by prescribing courses of physical therapy (physical therapy) and massage. At any stage of the disease, conservative therapy includes physiotherapy and reflexology courses. In case of severe pain, this is electrophoresis with novocaine, then warming procedures, mud and baths.
At the same time, drug therapy is prescribed. We remove pain by prescribing drugs from the NSAID group in tablets, injections, ointments (the drug with the best analgesic properties is Ketorol). For very severe shoulder pain, treatment includes narcotic painkillers (Tramadol) and glucocorticosteroids (GCS - Betamethosone). Sometimes folk remedies are also used.
To restore cartilage, chondroprotectors (Dona, Artra, Structum) are prescribed. Drugs in this group also help restore damaged periarticular tissues - tendons and ligaments, since they have the same origin as cartilage cells.
Surgical assistance will be required for some types of fractures, dislocations, ruptures of tendons and ligaments. If joint function is completely lost, if conservative treatment does not help, the destroyed joint must be removed and replaced with an artificial one (endoprosthesis surgery).
To prevent pain from reoccurring, a complex of rehabilitation measures is carried out using exercise therapy, massage, reflexology courses, and sanatorium-resort treatment.
What injections to give for shoulder pain
Injections are prescribed for severe pain that is not relieved by pills and external means:
- Analgin (Baralgin)
- one ampoule contains 1 ml of solution or 500 mg of active substance - a single dose for an adult; may have a toxic effect on hematopoiesis, so use it with caution; - Ketorolac (Ketorol)
– in one ampoule 30 mg of active ingredient – a single dose for an adult; contraindications: peptic ulcer of the stomach and duodenum, increased bleeding.
Blockades are widely used - injections of painkiller solutions into the most painful points.
The Moscow Paramita clinic uses the most modern methods of diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of all diseases that cause shoulder pain syndrome.
If necessary, if the disease threatens the patient’s life, after examination by a doctor, he is urgently sent to the hospital. But we treat most pain syndromes on an outpatient basis. Detailed information about treatment can be found on our website.
Injections for shoulder pain
