Is pain in the shoulder blade an indication of cancer?

It is extremely rare that the cause of shoulder blade pain is cancer or lung cancer. Other symptoms, such as fatigue, weight loss and chronic coughing also occur. If these persist over a period of several weeks, a doctor should be consulted.

Which doctor should I consult?

If there is pain on the shoulder blade, an attempt should first be made to relieve it by relieving the shoulders. If there is no improvement even after a few weeks, a doctor should be consulted. Since it is usually a problem of the muscles or bones, an orthopedist is responsible for this.

If necessary, acute injuries, such as after a fall or accident, can also be treated in the emergency room, where the doctor in charge is an accident surgeon. An X-ray should always be taken first to differentiate more precisely between the pain in the shoulder blade. This can reveal, for example, scoliosis or whether fractures have occurred in the area of the shoulder blade or the underlying ribs. A CT image can also be helpful, especially if there is a muscular cause. The doctor can already detect any cramps by palpation (palpation).

The type of pain

It is important to pay attention to the accompanying symptoms and to differentiate the pain in case of pain in the shoulder blade. If the pain occurs for only a few days and disappears, the cause was probably a cramp or sore muscle. If the pain always occurs under stress or during certain movements, this may indicate a muscular cause or bursitis.

If the pain is permanent, it may be caused by scoliosis or a spinal block. In most cases, adequate physiotherapy and possibly massages are sufficient to reduce the pain in the shoulder blade. However, this only applies as long as there is only slight muscle cramping, for example due to mild scoliosis.

If muscle inflammation occurs, the only thing that usually helps is a pain-relieving injection containing anti-inflammatory drugs. Physiotherapy also does not help if the bursa is inflamed. In this case, the shoulder should be immobilised to prevent infection and glucocorticoids should be given to reduce the inflammation in the bursa.

In cases of severe scoliosis, fracture of the shoulder blade, fractured ribs or a herniated disc of the thoracic spine, surgery is usually the only option. In most cases, however, pain in the shoulder blade can be easily controlled with prescribed physiotherapeutic exercises. For some time now, the technique of taping has been enjoying increasing popularity in the field of sports medicine.

One reason for this is that it is versatile and easy to learn. For example, it is also possible to apply tape bandages in case of pain in the shoulder blade area. Here, as in other body regions, it does not fulfill the function of completely immobilizing the joint and muscle.Instead, it counteracts unwanted and excessive movements and thus represents a functional bandage.

In taping, this is achieved by transferring the forces acting on the joint to the skin, thus relieving the joint. At the same time a more conscious perception of body movements takes place. For taping the shoulder region or the upper back between the shoulder blades there are several online instructions. However, the tape bandage should by no means be understood as a panacea. It is only a supporting measure and does not replace a physiotherapeutic or drug treatment of the cause of the complaints.