Preparing for Surgery: A Practical Checklist
Most surgery postponements happen for avoidable reasons — a missing report, an unstopped blood thinner, an unfasted stomach. Here is how to arrive ready.
Read articleFrozen shoulder is progressive pain and stiffness of the shoulder joint caused by thickening and tightening of the capsule around it. It is markedly more common in people with diabetes, and it improves with patience and physiotherapy rather than with rest.
Symptoms
Not everyone gets every symptom, and the pattern can differ in older people, in people with diabetes and in children. These are the ones most often reported.
- Shoulder pain that is worse at night and disturbs sleep
- Increasing difficulty raising the arm overhead
- Inability to reach behind the back — fastening a blouse, tucking a shirt, combing hair
- Stiffness that limits movement even when someone else moves the arm
- Pain radiating down the outer upper arm
When to see a doctor
Do not wait these out
If any of the following applies, arrange to be seen the same day. For anything sudden or severe, call 9281862028 or come straight to the emergency department at SIMS — it is open 24 hours and does not need an appointment.
- Shoulder stiffness limiting daily activities such as dressing or eating
- Shoulder pain after a fall or injury, which may be a fracture or a rotator cuff tear
- Night pain that prevents sleep for more than a couple of weeks
- Shoulder pain with fever, or with chest discomfort and breathlessness
Tests that may be advised
Your consultant will order only the investigations that change the plan. Most of the following are available on the SIMS campus, so results usually come back the same visit.
- Clinical examination showing restriction of both active and passive movement
- X-ray of the shoulder to exclude arthritis or old fracture
- Blood sugar and HbA1c — undiagnosed diabetes is common in these patients
- Thyroid function tests
- Ultrasound or MRI where a rotator cuff tear is suspected
How it is treated
Treatment is decided case by case — by how advanced the problem is, what else you are being treated for, and what you can realistically sustain. Broadly, it involves the following.
- Structured physiotherapy with a daily home stretching programme — the mainstay of treatment
- Pain control to make the stretching possible
- Steroid injection into the joint in selected patients
- Tight control of blood sugar, which improves recovery
- Hydrodilatation or manipulation under anaesthesia for resistant cases
This page is general information, not a diagnosis
Frozen Shoulder can look like several other conditions, and the reverse is equally true. Nothing here can replace an examination, your test results and the judgement of the doctor treating you — and no medicine mentioned by name to a friend or relative should be started on the strength of this page. If you recognise yourself in it, book a consultation with the Orthopaedics department. If a symptom is sudden or severe, call 9281862028.
