About Your Shoulder
Your shoulder is a joint that is made up of many parts. They help you raise, rotate, and swing your arm. However, if you have frozen shoulder, certain parts of the shoulder joint contract (shrink and pull in). This often causes pain and stiffness when you try to move your arm.
Parts of the Normal Shoulder
- Ligaments: bands of fibrous tissue that connect bone to bone
- Head of the humerus: top part of the upper arm bone
- Glenoid: socket where the upper arm bone joins the scapula
- Capsule: tissue that extends around the entire glenoid and the head of the humerus
- Coracoid process: front part of the scapula
- Clavical: collarbone
- Scapula: shoulder blade
The Frozen Shoulder:
To diagnose frozen shoulder, your doctor will ask about your symptoms and health history. He or she will also check your range of motion. This is done by gently raising and rotating your arm to see how well it moves or if moving the arm is painful.
Next, x-rays (imaging tests) may be taken of your shoulder. These can help your doctor learn whether something else is causing your symptoms. In some cases, you may have other imaging tests. If your results are normal: you may be diagnosed with frozen shoulder.
