A 50 year old male came into the clinic complaining of shoulder pain on both sides but his biggest complaint wasn’t pain but the impact that his lack of shoulder movement had on his day to day life. 

This patient was unable to lift his arm above waist height, could not pull a top over his head and struggled to turn the steering wheel while driving. He had seen a shoulder surgeon who was considering a double shoulder REPLACEMENT. Which is quite a big operation and there were concerns about the recovery post surgery with the weakness through the shoulders and the back. 

Through examination it was noted that there were certain muscles around the patient's shoulders that were extremely tight including. One of these muscles was the subscapularis which is a muscle in your armpit which sits between the shoulder blades and the rib cage. Through treating the muscles around the shoulder but especially the subscapularis muscle we were able to release the tension which had been restricting this patient’s movement for months. At the next consultation the patient walked in and had responded very well to treatment so much so that he could lift his arms a lot higher and was able to work and dress himself. 

On return to the surgeon, it was no longer recommended to have shoulder replacement. 

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Dr Mariella Berry (Osteopath)

BSC (Osteopathy), MHSc (Osteopathy)