Osteopathy - Treating The Shoulder - A Case Study
Case Study. The Osteopathic Treatment of Shoulder Pain in a 71 year old male who presents with an inability to move his arm and reports a diagnosis of "Frozen Shoulder" given to him by his Physiotherapist.
This is a good case because it allows us to detail the importance of a good Osteopathic examination as it is absolutely crucial to finding the correct diagnosis.
This case study details the Osteopathic examination and treatment that were used in order to rule in or out the diagnosis of frozen shoulder. Of particular note is the need to adapt the normal Osteopathic examination because of the pain and restriction in the patient's shoulder.
This is a key aspect of Osteopathy, in that we adapt our skills to the patient's presentation, and it is why it is important not to have an over-reliance on orthopaedic examination.
The more the inability of the patient to move the more the Osteopath's skills are needed to be able to work around this restriction.
Palpation is of course key, but so is the use of other examination tools such as Active Resisted muscle testing. But adaption is needed because normal active resisted testing isn't possible if the patient can't move their arm.