Anyone suffer from this? Did the physical therapy help? i was diagnosed last year, but didn’t lose all my range of motion. But working with a sub-optimal computer set up has aggravated it to the point that I needed pain killers this week to get to sleep. It has kept me off the bike, which I was training for Tour de Phoenix (April 1), which will be a memory, cuz I could barely ride 16 miles yesterday, let alone thing about 74
I have an appointment with an ortho on Monday. I had a girlfriend who had this who eventually had to have surgery, well they put her under so that they could manipulate the shoulder.
I think I may change my user name, since I grew up in Memphis, they’re doing a little better in the tournament!
Haven’t had it, hope to never have it. I have dealt with many patients who have had it. It is a very frustrating diagnosis, for the patient and the physical therapist. Physical therapy can be helpful, but may have it’s limits depending on the patient. Frozen shoulder is a self-limiting process that will eventually take care of itself, in most cases. We know that most 80-90% of cases will resolve, we can just never predict how long each individual will take. I have had patients who got significantly better in a few months and have had several who took a couple of years. But most will regain most of if not all of their range of motion and function at some time.
Be patient with the therapy, it is typically very uncomfortable. I primarily focus on PNF stretching, joint mobilizations. The MUA (manipulation under anesthesia) should be your absolute last resort. Remember, this is a self-limiting process that will eventually resolve itself. There are some signficant risks with the MUA, aside from the risks associated with general anesthesia there is also the risk of breaking your arm during the manipulation, and there is no guarantee that you won’t just freeze up again afterward.
I will typically work with patients rather aggressively initially, 3 times per week or so. After a few weeks, if it appears we are making some headway in terms of improving rane of motion or function I will continue the in-clinic therapy, if we are getting nowhere, then it’s time for a home exercise program with regular follow-ups, every few weeks. My opinion is it makes no sense to continue to come in week after week for therapy if you aren’t getting anywhere. I give my patients exercises and tell them to go home and work on it. If there is some breakthrough get back to the clinic ASAP and we will see if we can capitalize on it. I learned this by working with a patient 3 times per week for 6 full months, without any improvement at all. It was extremely frustrating, for all parties involved, especially for us as she was a pain in the ass patient. I learned a lot from her.
Best of luck with your shoulder. Avoid the MUA if you can. If you are really hurting and they offer an injection, I would say go for it, just know that the relief is likely to be temporary. If you have any other questions feel free to PM me.
I had it in both shoulders at once. Therapy works–if you can take some pain. If you get the manipulation, guess what? Afterwards–therapy. If you get an operation, same thing. Afterwards–therapy. Just go straight from a to c and gut out the PT.
Good luck with it.
an intra-articular steroid injection works wonders. This means IN the joint, not in the bursa above the rotator cuff. It takes a decent othropedist to get the injection there, as most injections are put into the bursa. It is NOT a temporary fix, in fact there are studies showing that if you get the steroid in the joint, therapy works faster and fewer people need surgery. I get patients sent to me all the time for surgery, because PT didnt work, i give them all an injection and way more then half never end up needing surgery.
I have had a frozen shoulder - and have regained almost full flexibility.
Fairly simple stretching works - if that doesn’t help, an MRI is indicated to make sure rotator cuff is intact. The best stretch for me was to stand in front of a door - reach behind with the affected hand and grab the knob - and do a deep knee bend, which bends the arm and pulls shoulder in passively. Orthopod showed it to me, and it opened up the front of my shoulder beautifully.
Also found that doing my shoulder stretches in the steam room after a workout increased the peak range of motion.
Once back to baseline on flexibility, have taken up yoga to maintain range of motion and restore good posture while increasing stress (more aero, more swimming).
Hang in there - it’s painful (very!) but easy to overcome. Good luck!
I did have a frozen shoulder, it is actually called adhesive carpulitis, spelling might be wrong there btw. There is plenty of info if you google it. Estentially, it is when the folds of your carpula stick together, The carpula is like a sheath that goes over the sholder. You must kinda of break the adheisions with streaches. Anyway, when I was diagnosed, the doctor was suprised I could swim a straight line.I lost about 30% or my range of motion. Specifically, I could nor reach up much over my head, There are 3 solutions, surgery, manipulation or just work it out. I chose to work it out with PT. I did spend at least 1 hour a day doing the streched the PT gave me. I also would hang from a patio cover putting all my weight on my bad arm. Mucho pain BTW. It took almost 10 weeks to get it back to normal. Very fine after that and it did not return
Good luck with it, just really listen to the PT!
Hey Vol fan, you can PM me and I’ll go into more detail of my PT
.
Went to the doc today. He wants to make sure it’s not the rotator cuff so I’m having an MRI next week. I do not like closed in places, so this should be interesting…
It is more painful now, but of course the doc had to do lots of “does this hurt” things…
Hey everyone this may be a really late post but my name is Dr John Quackenbush I am a Chiropractor who is certified in Manipulation Under Anesthesia and I have 29 years of clinical experience and I am here to say I have never seen Frozen Shoulder respond to something so fast and with minimal pain than with MUA Manipulation under Anesthesia. Someone posted that this should be your last resort or just not to do it. I agree that you should try everything you can to get your ROM back but if it’s just not cutting it then get the MUA procedure done. It will save you precious time and still allow you to train at a good pace and without pain. By breaking up the fibrous tissue with manipulation under anesthesia the muscle tissue and connective tissue are bio-mechanically freed up and the nerves are no longer irritated by being entrapped in the fibrous scar tissue. I have personally seen some heinous cases of Frozen shoulder that did not respond to anything else and responded wonderfully to manipulation under anesthesia.
I didn’t realize how much this occurs in triathletes such as yourselves…I thought the primary sport would be power lifters and body builders and while there is quite a few in that arena I am seeing a lot of runners. The MUA procedure seems to cut through the adhesive capsulitis like a hot knife through butter!! The rehab basically shoulder exercises can be sped up by using kettlebells and clubbells. check http://.www.drqdc.com for some videos I have posted concerning MUA procedures and what to expect.
…my name is Dr John Quackenbush I am a Chiropractor…
Seriously?
Brad
I have treated a lot of frozen shoulders and have had the most success with ART, amazing success I would say. It used to take months to get some progress but now it’s not uncommon that I see a big change after one visit. We have spent a lot of time refining the technique for working the shoulder capsule. I would consider it if I was you.
Brad,
Seriously my last name is Quackenbush and I am a Chiropractor but I don’t think I am directly related to the Dr Quackenbush of the Marx brother’s Dr Quackenbush fame though. Besides you are the very first guy to break my balls in 29 years yeh right!
Hey with a last name like Quackenbush you know I have to be good …no excellent at what I do…it’s the way I roll…so believe me I am serious as a heart attach when comes to fixing up atheletes.
Please call me if you ever need a good neck adjustment. 
DoctorQ
ART is smoking good stuff.All depends on what the athelete’s goals are and a combination of ART , Manipulation, possible shoulder injections and MUA are all viable options for the frozen shoulder syndrome. A combination of one or more of these techniques is what works best. The muscle work portion of MUA is where most of the results are achieved. During Manipulation under anesthesia there is more stretching of all the surrounding tissues of the shoulder girdle as well as the Cervical and Thoracic spines. The newest protocol for shoulder MUA involves several soft tissue techniques including but not limited to figure 8s, extreme ROM stretching and finally the icing on the cake is the manipulation of the shoulder including the ac joint, scapular protraction AC joint manipulation as well as cervical and thoracic manipulation. So basically any tissue whether bone, muscle, tendon or ligament are attended to.
The most recent protocols for frozen shoulder(s) are much more involved than even three years ago. It is no longer just a manipulation of the shoulder joint. Believe it or not the MUA is a much gentler technique than one would think because there is no patient resistence and therefore very little force is s\used in the latest version of MUA.
With that said I have a high respect for ART practicioners I just opine that MUA is a viable treatment of frozen shoulder. and the combination of both can’t be beat.
DoctorQ
I agree with you however I always go from less invasive to most so I always try ART/PT before I would recommend MUA.
Marisol,
I think we are of the same volition as far as conservative first. I also think ART is a good start and so would PT if they don’t use exercise as the mainstay in the begining. But let’s not forget about manipulation. I mean Chiropractic manipulation not MUA. If that tripple threat to frozen shoulder doesn’t do it then MUA should be considered.
Protocol for a patient to qualify for MUA has to have undergone 2-6 weeks of physical medicine prior to getting authorization.
So we are in aggrement for conservative treatment first. I am eager to hear of your opinion of Manipulation Under Anesthesia (MUA) and what your opinion is based on. I am just trying to get a feel for the members of this forum.
Q
VF - PM me a phone number and we can talk it out. I think I can help.
John
Just read this thread today. I am a chiropractor, Art certified and have treated a lot of frozen shoulder. Just helped present a paper in Brazil on an entirely new approach that when fully investigated may change the prism thru which FSS is looked at. Over 1000 patients treated in this way have had amazing results when compared to traditional approaches. Other doctors trained with this technique are duplicating the results. Very significant reductions in pain and improved ranges of motion are attained after the first manipulation (not to the shoulder). Then rehab as described in this thread can be much more effective.Go to www.frozenshoulderdoctor.com for more
information and good luck with your case!