Frozen shoulder sucks!

• No one knows what causes it – in fact – “Most often, frozen shoulder occurs with no associated injury or discernible cause”
• We do know that frozen shoulder results from inflammation, scarring, thickening and shrinkage of the capsule surrounding the shoulder joint.
• An injury to the shoulder can lead to frozen shoulder.
• No one can tell you how long it will last.

The Mayo clinic reports:

Your risk of developing frozen shoulder increases if you’ve recently had to have your arm in a sling for several weeks, or if you have had surgery in which your arm was immobilized in a specific position for a prolonged period.

How to Heal a Frozen Shoulder

That’s a million dollar statement – if you knew how to do it.  In truth, typical treatment involves:  the use of anti-inflammatory medications, cortisone injections and physical therapy.  Physcial therapy can involve several different modalities:

• Ice packs
• Electric stimulation
• Range of motion stretches
• strengthening exercises

If none of this helps, you may be a candidate for Manipulation Under Anesthesia.

Manipulation Under Anesthesia (MUA)

Sounds sanitary – doesn’t it?  What it really means is that you’re put to sleep and then your shoulder joint is forced to move in various positions:  flexion, external rotation, internal rotation.  This manipulation stretches and tears the scar tissue that has developed in the joint capsule.  Oh – they put you to sleep because of the pain involved.

Video of Shoulder Joint Manipulation Under Anestesia

Click here to view the embedded video.

Notes from MUA video

As you can see, the doctor performing the manipulation in the video is moving the patients shoulder in the same way a physical therapist does during physical therapy.  The only difference is the doctor is not inhibited by the patients pain level.