Shoulder osteoarthritis is associated with swelling, severe pain in the shoulder, and limited range of motion. The causes and symptoms of the disease, available treatments, and ways to help at home are discussed later in this article.
What is Shoulder Arthritis
The structure of the shoulder joint is quite complex and the most flexible, providing the human body with the most complete range of motion. The joint capsule in the shoulder is able to stretch so powerfully that a person can lift his arm vertically and perform rotational movements with it. This activity weakens the ligaments, and they often experience mild ischemia due to the sharp bending of the tendons.
Lack of nutrition in joint tissue is the main threat to its destruction and promotes the development of pathology.
The disease mainly manifests as the degeneration of shoulder joint tissue, called shoulder arthropathy or shoulder arthropathy. The biomechanics of the shoulder is based on the perfect working of all components: normal nerve conduction, good blood supply, impeccable anatomy. Violation of any of these conditions will always cause the internal tissues to begin to deform, resulting in discomfort, limited movement, and pain.
Osteoarthritis (or osteoarthritis) is first and foremost a non-inflammatory disease, but a degenerative disease. It is related to the ischemic process of surrounding tissue caused by various reasons.
As a result, the nutrition of the joint is disturbed, which is why the thin, elastic layer of hyaline cartilage that covers the head of the bone becomes thinner. The hyaline cartilage, which becomes less elastic and thins, makes normal movement difficult, resulting in a narrowing of the joint space.
This phenomenon causes the body to act, and bone growths called osteophytes can form on the edges of joints. Osteophytes damage muscles and ligaments with their sharp edges, resulting in chronic, delayed inflammation.
The main danger of osteoarthritis is that slight restriction of hand movement always results in a reduction in range of motion.
If not moved, the shoulder can begin to suffer from the accumulation of salt in the tissue surrounding the joint, as well as a deterioration in the nutrition of the joint tissue. Over time, this is fraught with the formation of joint contractures - limiting the possibility of movement, or complete loss of shoulder mobility and disability for the patient.
Causes of frozen shoulder
The only cause of shoulder arthropathy is deep ischemia, a sharp or gradual deterioration of the blood supply to certain areas of the tissue, and depletion of joint nutrition. But this reason is caused by factors that may be present in the medical record individually or simultaneously:
- Shoulder injury. These can be obvious injuries from a car accident or fall, or hidden tears of muscles and ligaments during athletic training or hard work. Any joint injury always has the ability to self-aware because the affected areas do not return to their full size and their conduction is always disturbed. For years or decades, the body can successfully cope with this condition until aging begins.
- Age-related physical changes.
- Infectious attacks of arthritis.
- Metabolic and hormonal imbalances are also often age-related.
- Genetic or genetic predisposition.
Stages and symptoms of shoulder joint disease
The development of the disease goes through several stages. Because osteoarthritis is a rather slowly progressive chronic disease, the first stage, which most effectively manages joint deformities, is ignored by most patients.
- Symptoms of the first stageFor the first time, when the hyaline cartilage is thinned, the patient may experience some discomfort when moving the hand. Vigorous wiggling or twitching is not accompanied by pain because there are no nerve endings in the cartilage and its destruction does not cause pain. But sometimes shoulder pain starts at night or at the end of a workout. They usually don't notice this, attributing it to muscle pain or neuralgia. The disease begins with few symptoms, and if action is not taken immediately, it will enter the second stage.
- Symptoms of Stage 2. If the patient feels pain when moving his hand, accompanied by a clear clicking sound, then this means that osteophytes have formed in the joint. From this moment on, the shoulder is constantly injured by the sharp edges of the bone growth, causing the surrounding tissue to become inflamed. This manifests as morning stiffness, which disappears only after joint development, or as pain during habitual physical exertion or nighttime fatigue.
A person's health can deteriorate as chronic foci of inflammation in the body affect the general condition. At night, in wet weather, and in the off-season, joints can be injured more violently.
The patient strictly limited the amount and extent of arm movement and could not raise it more than 90 degrees front and side. This results in a significant deterioration of muscle atrophy and joint tissue nutrition.
- Symptoms of Stage 3. Usually, if the patient comes to the clinic in the third stage of the disease, then he can hardly move his hand. The hand does not lift up, does not retract to one side, and the joint becomes swollen. The muscle-wasting, pain syndrome is so severe that when you try to lift your hand, your fingers tremble. In most cases, contractures of the shoulder joint, known as "frozen shoulder" syndrome, are noted.
How to treat shoulder joint disease
In fact, joint disease is impossible to cure, let alone at home. The disease is so dependent on so many internal and external factors that it is almost never the root cause.
But the good news for patients in the first and second stages of the disease is that osteoarthritis can be stopped. This is the reason why doctors insist on early diagnosis and treatment of shoulder joint disease, when the joint tissue is only partially destroyed and there is no osteophyte, it can try to restore the normal nutrition of the joint.
Conservative treatment
Treatment of arthropathy always has two goals: to eliminate pain and, if possible, to restore the supply of substances needed for the normal functioning of the joints.
- The intake of nutrients in tissues depends on the patient's diet. The diet for osteoarthritis should exclude salt and alcohol. Meat products and vegetables containing purine bases will also increase the content of uric acid in the body, which is also not advisable. Steamed dairy and vegetable dishes are recommended.
- The connection of pharmaceutical preparations containing glucosamine and chondroitin and collagen to nourish joint tissue. Regular use of regular gelatin in jelly form helps enrich the menu with animal collagen.
- Topical application of various warm, anti-inflammatory and chondroitin-containing ointments and balms activates blood circulation in the tissues around the joints.
- If the pain syndrome is mild, NSAIDs are not recommended. If hand movements are accompanied by severe pain, NSAIDs can anesthetize and reduce inflammation. These medications can help relieve pain.
- If the shoulder is swollen, and an inflammatory process begins in it, compressing it with ointment, fixing it at night or rubbing it with a gel has an excellent effect.
- Therapeutic gymnastics is an integral part of the successful treatment of shoulder joint disease. However, overloading the joint is not recommended because improper distribution can lead to rapid destruction of the hyaline cartilage.
Treatment exercises for shoulder joint disease and its implementation rules
Special exercises will help develop the joints and give them flexibility. Gymnastics can be done independently at home. The main rules of the exercise should be:
- Regularity, i. e. at least 15 minutes of exercise per day;
- Practice smoothly and effortlessly. This is necessary to avoid further damage to the joint structure;
- Obtain moral pleasure in physical activity, which will help normalize the patient's emotional state.
Kinesitherapy exercises are recommended in which hand movements do not cause pain. They do so slowly, forcing the ligaments and muscles to gradually warm up and stretch.
- We offer the easiest and most useful exercises for shoulder arthropathy:
- Sit in a chair with your hands on your knees. Do a circular motion with your shoulders: 5 forwards, then 5 backwards.
- Lift your straight arms and pull your shoulders and shoulder blades back as high as you can. Hold for a few seconds, then lower. Repeat 5-7 times.
- Open straight arms with palms down. Bend your wrist at the wrist, the fingers should look up. Do a circular motion with your shoulders: 5 forwards, then 5 backwards.
- Raise the bent arm above your head, while the fingers of one hand should rest on the elbow of the other. Gently move your arms back until you feel a stretch in your shoulder joints. Practice 5-7 times.
- Place the palms of your hands behind your head, with the backs of your hands facing down. Move your arms so that your palms drop down your back to the area between your shoulder blades. Repeat the exercise 5-7 times.
- Place your left hand on your right elbow and move your right hand across your left shoulder as far as you can until you feel a stretch in your shoulder joint. Practice 5-7 times. Switch hands and repeat with the other hand.
In the treatment of shoulder osteoarthritis, the following methods are considered effective: manual therapy, physical therapy and hydrotherapy. The use of traditional medical methods is also considered reasonable.
Folk remedies and home help
The main folk remedy for shoulder joint arthropathy is herbal medicine, which allows the use of dried herbs and herbal decoctions for compresses, preparation of ointments and rubs at home to normalize metabolism and restore joint nutrition to relieve pain.
- ointment. Take 10 grams each of dry hop leaves, sweet clover, and St. John's wort. Chop herbs thoroughly and grind together, add petroleum jelly and mix all ingredients thoroughly. Apply the finished ointment to the shoulder area. This will help reduce joint pain and inflammation.
- wipe. Pour in five parts vodka or alcohol with one part crushed rosemary flower. Then you need to keep taking the medicine for 24 hours in a warm, dark place. Tinctures are used to externally rub the affected joints.
- soup. Pour the corn stigma (2 tablespoons) into two cups of water, boil for 10 minutes, and drain one tablespoon of water, four times a day.
- compression. For compresses, you need to brew 30 grams of dry oatmeal in two cups of water. Apply the prepared substance to the sore shoulder for 30 minutes.
Alternative Treatment for Shoulder Osteoarthritis
- Manual techniques - massage, manual therapy sessions, osteopathy - allow you to remove muscle mass, tension and spasms and free blood vessels and nerves leading to your joints.
- Physiotherapy, especially shock wave therapy, balneotherapy, mud therapy and other methods are not recommended during exacerbations, that is, when an active inflammatory process occurs in the joints.
- Relief is a good reason to have a spa session, followed by lasting improvements.
Surgical treatment of shoulder osteoarthritis
Because a significant pain syndrome can prevent the patient from living a normal life, a doctor may recommend surgery.
In most cases, prosthetics are performed, i. e. , the damaged joint is replaced with an endoprosthesis. If possible, partial arthroplasty is done to change only some parts of the shoulder joint.
Surgery is used in rare cases because any surgical intervention, especially those associated with the installation of intra-articular prostheses, can lead to complications and a longer recovery period.
Osteoarthritis of the shoulder joint is an insidious and dangerous disease in which a person's motor activity is disturbed and a rather intense pain syndrome is noted.
It is important to treat the disease at the first mild symptoms to prevent further damage to the joints.
The patient must remember that successful treatment of osteoarthritis depends more on his effort, activity than medication.