General Shoulder Pain and Inflammation

Man playing pickleball outside wearing all grey.

Anatomy of Shoulder Pain

A group of four tendons around the shoulder joint make up the rotator cuff. These include the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis. The tendons which attach these muscles to the humerus are known as the rotator cuff. The rotator cuff has several important jobs, including stabilizing the shoulder, elevating and rotating the arm, and ensuring the head of the humerus stays securely in the shoulder joint.

The biceps tendon (the long-head tendon), goes through an opening in the rotator cuff between two rotator cuff tendons and attaches to the top of the glenoid (socket of the shoulder).

The labrum is a cartilage gasket that helps deepen the socket of the shoulder and stabilize the shoulder.

Any of these structures can be strained or inflamed causing shoulder pain. Sometimes there’s a specific trauma, other times the pain starts without a known cause. Most daily activities, such as showering, getting dressed, and eating, require the use of the shoulder. As such, once the shoulder is inflamed, it’s hard to fully rest the shoulder.

A diagram of the anatomy of shoulder pain.

Initial
Treatment

  • Avoid activities that re-create the sharp pain as best as possible. Limit repetitive reaching or lifting.

  • Ice packs should be applied to the shoulder to help with pain.

  • Physical therapy is important to strengthen and rebalance the muscles of your shoulder. PT helps decrease pain and inflammation in the shoulder.

  • NSAIDS such as ibuprofen or naproxen help with swelling and pain.

  • Ultrasound guided injection of corticosteroids mixed with a local anesthetic placed in the exact location of the pain can provide improvement in pain and inflammation.