What are stiff shoulders? What are the treatment methods?
The shoulders are one of the important joints of the body. The shoulders consist of Humerus and Glenoid. In the physical description, it looks like a golf ball on a tee. Therefore, the stability of the shoulders shall rely on shoulder membrane, tendon, and surrounding muscles in order to move as desired. For example: Reach the objects above the head, encircle the hands to scratch the back, and wear the clothes.
Stiff Shoulder
The stiff shoulder can be found in the middle age persons and can be found in females more than males. The pain often occurs around the shoulders, which causes the difficulty in doing daily activities. For example: Wear clothes, scratch the back, or shoulder pain while sleeping. It can be divided into 2 main types, which are:
1. Primary Stiff Shoulders, which is stiff shoulders with unknown cause.
2. Secondary Stiff Shoulders, which is stiff shoulders that comes from the pathology in the shoulders. For example: From an accident in the shoulders or some types of diseases, like diabetes, thyroid, kidney disease, heart disease, etc.
Period of Stiff Shoulder
There are 3 stages of stiff shoulder, which are:
1. Inflammatory Phase
2. Frozen Phase
3. Thal Phase
In the diagnosis for stiff shoulder, apart from history-taking and physical check-up, the x-ray, ultrasound, or MRI is needed to find the clear cause for the stiffness in order to plan the proper treatment.
Treatment Methods for Stiff Shoulder
The treatment can be divided into 2 types, which are:
1. Non-surgery treatment method, which are:
o Oral medication
o Steroid injection
o Physical therapy to increase the motion limit of shoulders
2. Surgery treatment method: After receiving the non-surgery treatment method for at least 6-12 months but the stiff shoulders still occur which causes problems in doing daily life activities, the surgery treatment method must be considered. Currently, there is shoulder arthroscopy that provides good effects and fast recovery so that the treatment of stiff shoulder is no longer frightening.
Normally, the primary stiff shoulder can be cured naturally by itself. However, the secondary stiff shoulder; like rotator cuff tear or abnormality in the Humerus, should be treated at the source.
