03/09/2017
Shoulder pain is a common musculoskeletal complaint which could be due to injuries, acute or chronic inflammation of the shoulder joint, tendons, surrounding ligaments.
Sports injuries are most common in adolescents and young adults. Middle-aged and older individuals more often develop shoulder pain due to rotator cuff lesions, such as supraspinatus tendinopathy and partial or full-thickness tendon tear. Frozen shoulder syndrome and osteoarthritis also occur predominately in older patients.
Bilateral shoulder involvement, also more common among older patients, suggests an inflammatory process such as polymyalgia rheumatica or rheumatoid arthritis.
Several modalities can confirm diagnosis of shoulder pathology such as plain radiographs, MRI and Ultrasound of shoulder.
The diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound has been found to be the equivalent of MRI in identifying tendon tears, labral tears, and biceps tendon tears and dislocation. Ultrasound is less expensive than MRI and preferred by patients.
At arthritis and Rheumatology Clinical Center of NOVA, We are equipped with state of the art ultrasound equipment to assess joint, tendon inflammation and or tears. We perform therapeutic injections of the joint, under direct ultrasound guidance, which is the most accurate way to access the joint. In addition, we employ cold laser therapy, which is a noninvasive tool without side effects, to help with various shoulder tendon injuries, inflammation and pain.
