Impingement SymptomsIn the early stages of shoulder impingement, the symptoms are usually mild and patients tend not to seek treatment during this time. The symptoms include pain, weakness, restricted motion, a feeling of instability, catching, and locking. Shoulder impingement is common in young athletes and middle-aged people, especially those who do daily repetitive activities that involve overhead arm motions, such as pitching, throwing, tennis, or racquetball. The symptoms mentioned above are usually aggravated in certain positions, such as reaching back, for example, to fasten a seat belt or pick up a briefcase out of the back seat.
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Non-Surgical Treatment: Alterations in activities, such as avoiding overhead movements, and learning to use the shoulder in a safer, more comfortable manner is important. Steroid injections and anti-inflammatory medications such as ibuprofen and naproxen help reduce pain and swelling. Physical therapy with stretching exercises can be very effective in improving the mobility and strengthen of shoulder muscles.
Surgical Treatment: Surgical intervention is usually the last option and can involve either arthroscopy or the open surgical technique. In arthroscopy, thin surgical instruments are inserted into two or three small puncture wounds around your shoulder. Your surgeon then examines the inside of your shoulder through a fiberoptic scope connected to a television camera. With both techniques, the surgeon can remove inflamed bursa, impinging bone spurs, decompress or open up the space available for the rotator cuff (see Figure 3). The end of the clavicle (collarbone) may be removed if it has impinging spurs. |