Right shoulder instability

by Arjun
(Birmingham United Kingdom)


Dear Dr B


I would greatly appreciate it if you could help me an longstanding and ongoing issue with my upper back, primarily with my right shoulder blade.

I first injured the upper back around three years ago whilst performing bent over row weighted exercise at the gym. I didn't warm up sufficiently and felt a deep pain in my rhomboid area, or the area between my right shoulder blade and spine.

I rested and it somewhat recovered but ever since my right shoulder has never felt the same nor does it have the same amount of strength as my left shoulder. In particular, when I attempt to lift my right arm overhead I feel great discomfort, not pain, in my right shoulder blade/scapula. It is a feeling of instability and almost as if my shoulder is about to be dislocated.

One exercise at the gym I found has worked to provide temporary relief is something called a scapula raise, which is similar to a scapula push up, but you are hanging off a pull up bar and lift yourself up without bending the arms, it is a subtle movement but seem to help my scapula stay retracted and down for a while.

I am beginning to think my injury is nerve related rather than muscle related due to the length of time I have had the issue and I am now getting spasms of pain in my rhomboid area which also affects my breathing. I have been to a chiropractor who told me that apparently the rib can poke through the back and that prevents the scapula rotating properly on the rib cage, but the manual release therapy did not provide me with any relief. When standing upright my left lat/serratus anterior feels a lot more activated than the right side which feels as though the muscle is somewhat paralysed. I also struggle a lot with simple push ups where my right shoulder blade area feels very unstable during the movement and there is a clear lack of strength compared to what I could do before the injury.

I am not sure if this is related but I also get the occasional tingling/numbness in my fingers, particular my right hand. Also I regularly wake up at night with completely numb hands. Just one final thing which may also be unrelated to the shoulder issue is that I also get some sciatic pain which runs down the back of my left leg and stretching my hamstrings feels very uncomfortable.

Apologies for the long email but it is hard to find a chiropractor who really knows the body through and through and you seem to have a great level of knowledge.

Kindest Regards
Arjun

Hallo Arjun,
Ben je Nederlands? There can't be too many Arjuns in England!

This is complicated and I really can't give you a simple answer. There isn't one. My feeling is that you are almost certainly correct; this is neurological fundamentally. The tingling and numbness in the hands is a vital factor in the diagnosis of your back pain and shoulder weakness.

Firstly, start to focus on which fingers are involved. This gives important information to your chiropractor.

The rhomboid area is particularly difficult. I'm not sure what a "rib poking through the back" is about, but certainly the costovertebral joints could be part of the problem.

The rhomboids are supplied by nervous innervation from the lower neck via the dorsal scapular nerve. It's a pure C5 nerve; it's not uncommon that a lower neck problem refers to the midback, and to the arm, or both limbs less commonly. However, C5 doesn't go to the hands.

The fact that raising your arm overhead increases your pain may be very significant. Nerve root impingement is relieved by raising your arm. Read more about the Shoulder abduction relief sign. However, a thoracic outlet syndrome is aggravated by raising the arm. The definitive examination is Adson's test. The pulse in your wrist drops dramatically when you turn your head to the right, look up, and take in a deep breath. It's not a simple test to perform, however.

I think the problems in your sciatic nerve are probably unrelated; in rare cases an impingement in the neck can affect the lower limb.

Then there are referrals from the lungs and pancreas for example that typically refer to the midback. There's nothing simple about your problem.

Look at this letter as the beginning of a journey. Start looking for a chiropractor who is known to be thorough, caring, and will take the time to examine you carefully.

You make no mention of xrays. It's time for a cervical and thoracic spine series and a chest xray. Do you have a cervical rib?

Lastly, as you already are doing, start to looking for those movements that provoke and relieve the pain.

Er is helaas niets gewoon of simpel met uw klacht, Arjun.

Let me know how you get on.

Dr B


» » Right shoulder instability


Click here to post comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Chiropractic help Questions (Neck pain).





Did you find this page useful? Then perhaps forward it to a suffering friend. Better still, Tweet or Face Book it.

Share this page:
Enjoy this page? Then forward it to a friend. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

  1. Click on the HTML link code below.
  2. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.