The painful shoulder

The painful shoulder syndrome is very common. Diagnosis and differential diagnosis may be difficult. Shoulder pain may be caused by local processes or systemic diseases or can be referred. Periarthritis humeroscapularis (frozen shoulder) is the most common cause of painful shoulder syndrome. Biomechanical factors concerning the rotator cuff are involved in the etiopathogenesis of these pain syndromes. The therapy of frozen shoulder includes physical treatment, antirheumatic drugs, or X-ray treatment. Surgical measures may become necessary. In the course of rheumatoid arthritis the shoulder may be involved. Milwaukee-shoulder-syndrome has been described recently in crystal deposit diseases. Shoulder pain may be referred by mechanical irritations of nerve roots in the course of degenerative lesions of the cervical spine and also in the course of internal diseases of the heart, the lungs, or the gastrointestinal tract. In cases of shoulder pain without pathological data from arthrological, radiological or laboratory studies, one should always consider localized fibromyalgia in the shoulder-neck-region. The precise diagnosis of shoulder pain is an important prerequisite for treatment, the success of which should not be judged as pessimistic as it has been commonly done in the past. (orig.)