Many, probably, noticed - suddenly for no reason the shoulder starts to hurt. There seems to be no apparent reason, but it aches and aches. What's the matter? Where does the discomfort come from? And what to do: see a doctor or will it go away on its own? Let's figure it out.
It turns out that the shoulder joint does not hurt more often than any other joint in the human body. And the reason for the occurrence of pain in it is banal - this joint is naturally unstable and is able to rotate in different directions.
Acute shoulder pain: causes
Shoulder pain can be acute or chronic. In the first case, all kinds of injuries are to blame - muscles, tendons, bones, cartilage or ligaments. Much less often the causes of acute pain are some kind of destructive or inflammatory processes in the joint, autoimmune diseases or metabolic diseases. And sometimes such pain is a sign of a pathology of the heart, spine or, say, lungs.
Chronic pain
"Chronic" is called a pain in the shoulder joint that bothers a person for more than six months.
And most often the cause of such pain is periarthritis of the shoulder joint (although in international classification of such a diagnosis is not listed) - inflammation of the tissues of the shoulder, which can provoke:- tendinitis of the muscles of the rotator cuff;
- inflammation of the tendons of the biceps brachii;
- calcifying tenditis;
- adhesive capsulitis ("frozen shoulder");
- tendon rupture.
In general, shoulder pain can also occur due to microtrauma or tendon inflammation. Less commonly, the cause of pain can be:
- arthrosis of the shoulder / clavicular-acromial joints;
- or shoulder instability.
Inflammation of the tendons
Several muscles are responsible for the stability of the human shoulder. And chronic pain in the shoulder joint can occur precisely due to inflammation of the tendons of these muscles. Moreover, most often the pathology develops in men, and only that hand that is dominant is affected. Wherein:
- at first, the inflammation proceeds sharply, with the formation of edema (sometimes even complicated by hemorrhage), but with adequate treatment it can be completely eliminated;
- over time, the affected tendon thickens and becomes inflamed again, and due to inflammation it grows and becomes even thicker;
- the result of tendon proliferation is chronic pain, as well as limitation of joint mobility
- then the tendon is destroyed (slowly but surely, against the background of a long course of the disease), accompanied by a dull pain that first occurs after exertion and intensifies when the hand rises. However, in general, articular mobility remains.
Treatment
80% of all cases of shoulder pain are treated without surgery. Chronic pain, for example, is treated as follows:
- restrict shoulder activity for several months (it may even require complete rest);
- prescribe non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs;
- apply physiotherapeutic procedures in a course;
- recommend massage.
But no self-medication! Everything is prescribed by a doctor after consultation and examination, which has revealed the exact cause of shoulder pain.
As for the operation, it may be required only if a complete rupture of the tendon has occurred. Also, surgeons can intervene in the process if a therapeutic course of 6 months or more has not given the desired effect.
Important:the main thing is not to endure pain, but to seek medical help. Today, there are many methods to stop discomfort and solve the problem, including including using modern methods such as injecting stem cells into the joint or platelet-rich plasma.
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