Click here for details on common causes of shoulder pain or scroll down to read a detailed article about subacromial pain 

Subacromial Shoulder Pain

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There are a wide variety of diagnoses that can cause pain in your shoulder including osteoarthritis and frozen shoulder.

 

By far the most common condition that my patients describe to me is subacromial pain. This is a vague pain around the front of the shoulder that hasn’t been caused by any injury or trauma. Rather, it has come on by itself over a period of weeks or months. It is often worse at night or when performing overhead activities such as getting an object off a shelf or washing your hair.

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The pain is caused by swelling and inflammation in a relatively tight space between the shoulder joint and an overhanging arc of bone attached to your shoulder blade called the acromion, hence subacromial pain. The inflammation may be caused by a repetitive strain-type injury; by a thickened, slightly unhappy tendon in your rotator cuff or, on occasion even a rotator cuff tear.

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Having seen so much of this over my career, most often I will be able to diagnose this just by listening to your story and performing a clinical examination of your shoulder. However, advanced imaging techniques such as ultrasound scans are invaluable in 100% confirming the diagnosis and directing treatment.

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If there is no tendon tear the mainstay of treatment will often be physiotherapy but a steroid injection into the shoulder can be extremely useful in treating pain. The two together can often be curative. Relatively rarely you may need multiple injections and sometimes we may need to discuss keyhole surgery in order to rid you of your symptoms.

 

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