Shoulder pain - Causes and Symptoms

Definition

Shoulder-related pain is a symptom that varies from simple annoyance to the impossibility of movement.

The limitation may concern a single movement (such as, for example, the rotation of the shoulder to touch the neck or the lumbar area) or compromise the entire activity of the limb (adduction, abduction and rotation).

Pain can start from the shoulder (joints, muscles, tendons and bags) and radiate throughout the upper limb, but also towards the neck and chest. Furthermore, it can be associated with articulation.

The most frequent cause of shoulder pain is tendinitis, which mainly originates from acute trauma, chronic stress and anatomical factors (eg "impingement"). The tendons of the supraspinatus and long head of the biceps are mainly affected by inflammation.

This symptom is also found in the scapulohumeral periarthritis, an inflammatory process that affects the tendons and the soft parts of the shoulder, characterized by predominantly nocturnal pain, located at the articulation and deltoid, and radiated to the arm and hand.

In other cases, shoulder pain results from more or less important traumatic injuries such as a subacromial (or subdeltoid) bursitis, an anterior glenohumeral dislocation, an acromioclavicular separation, a laceration of the glenoid margin or rupture of one or more tendons of the rotator cuff and biceps. On the occasion of significant traumas, it is important to consider a fracture of the humerus, clavicle and scapula.

Even a calcific tendinitis, an acute, self-limiting idiopathic disorder that commonly affects the shoulder tendons, involves severe pain, marked tenderness and a characteristic radiographic appearance.

Adhesive capsulitis (also known as "frozen shoulder") is a painful condition characterized by severe joint restriction in all directions. This disorder frequently occurs after prolonged immobilization, but can also begin without a specific cause.

An inflammatory arthritis of the shoulder girdle, on the other hand, is characteristic of polymyalgia rheumatica.

Shoulder pain can result from degenerative processes affecting the joint surfaces (osteoarthritis) or from autoimmune diseases (rheumatoid arthritis). In some cases, this symptom is a consequence of neurological phenomena (stroke, cervical radiculopathy, etc.), metastatic disease, cholecystitis and myocardial infarction.