Dislocated Shoulder Injury - How Can It Be Cured?

When a blow or a fall causes an injury, where the top of your arm bone pops out from your shoulder socket, it’s called shoulder dislocation. It is a painful condition and you need to get this relocated to its position immediately. The tissues and bone related to that particular joint get damaged at the time of injury.

If you ignore this situation or keep the shoulder like this, it will cause greater damage and become painful. There may appear a bump in front or at the back of your shoulder that hurts.

What can lead to a dislocated shoulder injury?

● Sharp or a very fast twist of your arm.

● Falling on a hard surface.

● A sudden hurt or hit.

● It may also happen when you fall and try to save yourself using your hand. The force of the hit indirectly gets into the shoulder and your shoulder joint may slip from its place.

● At times seizures or epileptic fits can also cause a shoulder dislocation

● Electric shocks can also lead to shoulder dislocation

In some of the outdoor games, there are high chances to get hurt in the shoulder. Hockey, football, rugby, rock climbing, volleyball etc. bring in high probabilities of injuring the shoulder, thereby resulting in a shoulder dislocation.

What is the treatment or therapy of a dislocated shoulder? 

The dislocated shoulder should be treated as an emergency. An orthopaedic surgeon will be able to reduce the dislocation using certain well-described reduction methods and techniques. When your doctor fixes your shoulder in its actual place or the bone of your arm comes back to the socket, most of your pain will go away and you get huge relief from pain. After the shoulder bone is relocated, you can use further conservative treatment to reduce the pain and swelling of that place. Dislocated shoulder may take around 3 weeks to recover and the shoulder may need to be immobilized for this period.

 At times the dislocation is associated with a fracture and in that case, management may need to be modified including the need for operative treatment in certain cases where the fracture remains displaced even after reduction of the shoulder.

After the treatment, when all the symptoms are gone, the doctor will suggest some exercises for better results and normal shoulder movement and to prevent future shoulder injury. After an episode of shoulder dislocation, the chances of dislocation in future is increased as the tissue supporting the head of the humerus into its socket may get weakened. Such patients may land up with recurrent dislocation of shoulder wherein shoulder dislocates easily on specific movement and patients are afraid to do over-head activities.

Surgical treatment is often required for recurrent dislocation of the shoulder if shoulder strengthening exercises fail to alleviate the condition of recurrent dislocation.