Shoulder injuries and shoulder impingement problems are common and occur after sports, recreational activities, falls, car accidents, and repetitive work-related tasks. It affects everyone from throwing athletes, to construction workers, to administrative assistants. Both shoulder joint and tendon injuries can occur. Imbalance between the chest and shoulder blade muscles frequently prolong recovery. Shoulder pain can come from arthritis, swelling, rotator cuff tears and more. Our physical medicine and rehabilitation specialists use advanced examination and diagnostic tools to diagnose the source of the pain and prescribe therapies that will improve your function and reduce pain.
How we diagnose
A comprehensive examination is performed on every patient with a focus on ferreting out various problems that can cause shoulder pain.
Special manual training allows our physicians to diagnose small subluxations of the upper ribcage and spine joints that are a very common source of shoulder pain and are mostly missed and misdiagnosed by other physicians.
Gentle manipulation of these joints is frequently performed during examination for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.
Our physicians also examine the shoulder region and surrounding muscles with the help of advanced imaging techniques such as diagnostic ultrasound. This technology is advanced enough to see rotator cuff tears, bursitis and joint swelling that frequently cause acute and chronic shoulder pain.
MRI and X-ray imaging are often used to confirm the diagnosis made by our expert examination of internal shoulder joint problems.
How we treat
Manipulation is frequently used during the clinical encounter to restore normal function of the shoulder and surrounding structures.
Steroid injections are guided by ultrasound for safety and accuracy and are frequently very effective in decreasing pain and inflammation from arthritis of the shoulder joint.
Ultrasound-guided injections are also used for the treatment of a condition knows as a frozen shoulder.
Ultrasound-guided Viscosupplementation injections of products like Synvisc and Euflexxa are used for joints that need further cartilage lubrication and protection.
PRP (platelet-rich plasma) injections are now available for patients with advanced arthritis who have not responded to the other treatments and are not candidates for shoulder replacement.
We employ state-of-the-art physical therapy for correction of joint dysfunction, muscle imbalances, arch abnormalities and weakness that so frequently lead to shoulder problems.
When chronic, painful shoulder conditions, so often seen in trauma situations, are encountered, the patient is referred for specialized treatments known as ART and Graston mobilization to a chiropractor that works closely with our physicians.