About the diagnostic agent | Shoulder pain at the front

About the diagnostic agent

The use of our “self” diagnostic tool is simple. Just follow the link offered for the location and description of the symptoms that best fits your symptoms. Pay attention to where the pain is greatest in the shoulder joint.

Where is your pain

Causes

Since the shoulder joint is formed by many different structures (bones, muscles, ligaments and joint capsule), shoulder pain can have completely different causes. For example, front shoulder pain can be caused by involvement of the joint capsule. This can become inflamed or sometimes become trapped, causing pain in the area of the front shoulder.

Furthermore, there are so-called bursa (bursa sacs) in some places in the shoulder joint. These are intended to prevent friction between the individual structures during movement in the shoulder joint. Bursae can also become inflamed.

This condition is then called bursitis. Depending on the position of the bursa, anterior shoulder pain can also occur here. As with any other joint in the body, wear and tear of the joint surfaces can of course also occur in the shoulder joint, which is known as arthrosis.

Arthrosis can develop not only in the actual main joint between the shoulder blade and the humerus (glenohumoral joint). Wear and tear can also occur in the small secondary joint between the collarbone and the shoulder blade (acromio-clavicular joint), which can also lead to the occurrence of anterior shoulder pain. The wear and tear of the joint surfaces usually occurs in a gradual process that is not immediately noticeable.

This is often caused by recurrent minor injuries that over time lead to arthrosis of the joint. Such minor injuries of the joint surfaces/cartilage are caused, for example, by intensive physical strain, as is the case with competitive athletes or during intensive weight training. At the beginning, the first symptom is load-dependent shoulder pain.

Front shoulder pain can also be caused by degenerative muscle and tendon tears in the shoulder joint area. The biceps tendon is particularly worth mentioning here. The biceps brachii muscle is the strongest flexor in the elbow joint, whose long attachment tendon runs across the shoulder joint.

Individual fibers of various ligaments and tendons in the area of the shoulder joint ensure good guidance of the long biceps tendon through the joint. They form the so-called “pulley sling”. Damage to this guidance can lead to inflammation and instability of the biceps tendon, which manifests itself in pain depending on the load and movement. Luxation (dislocation) of the humeral head from the socket can also lead to anterior shoulder pain.The most common dislocation of the head of humerus is to the front and bottom, since the shoulder is well secured at the top by the muscle cuff, but this protection is missing in the lower part of the shoulder joint.