SHOULDER TREATMENT

Shoulder injuries are typically diagnosed through a physical exam, during which your doctor will check your range of motion and look for swelling, deformity, and other abnormalities around your joint. If you experienced an injury, your doctor will likely also perform an imaging test, such as an x-ray, MRI, PET, or CT scan, to get a better picture of your shoulder and the bones and connective tissue that may be affected. In some cases, your doctor may use arthrography (a type of imaging test using injected contrast dye) to get a picture of the connective tissue, or arthroscopy (a minimally invasive surgical technique which uses a camera inserted through a tiny incision) to look inside the joint and make minor repairs.

Your treatment and preventative choices will depend on the specifics of your shoulder issue. However, the majority of shoulder issues may be explained by a few fundamental ideas. Nonsurgical methods are used as the first line of treatment, including rest, painkillers, and shoulder strengthening and flexibility exercises. Techniques used in physical therapy can hasten the healing process and stop minor issues from getting worse. Additionally, your doctor might advise corticosteroid injections for the shoulder. In the event that none of these approaches work, surgery might be required.