A comprehensive clinical examination is the basis for selecting further diagnostic steps:
- General physical examination – including blood pressure, pulse, body weight, height; further:
- Inspection (viewing) of affected arm [swelling?]
- Palpation (palpation) of the painful area [tenderness?]
- Checking the mobility of the adjacent joints.
- Loss of strength of the musculature?
- Orthopedic examination [due todifferential diagnoses:
- Epicondylitis humeri lateralis (tennis elbow/”tennis elbow“).
- Epicondylitis humeri medialis (golfer’s elbow).
- Frozen Shoulder (Periarthritis humeroscapularis) – painful frozen shoulder with increasing pain in the shoulder area, at rest and movement, which occurs during certain movements and sometimes radiates throughout the arm.
- Myalgia (muscle pain) in the neck area.
- Subacromial bursitis – bursitis of a bursa in the shoulder area.
- Tendinitis (inflammation of the tendon)
- Tendopathy (tendonitis) in the wrist joint
- Tendovaginitis (tendonitis)]
- Neurological examination – [due todifferential diagnoses:
- Carpal tunnel syndrome (KTS) – nerve compression syndrome (narrowing syndrome of the median nerve in the region of the carpal canal); symptoms: Tingling and numbness also pain in the wrist; falling asleep of the hand, especially at night (brachialgia paraesthetica nocturna) [often both hands are affected; risk of confusion with cervical spine syndrome, polyneuropathy (diseases of the peripheral nervous system affecting multiple nerves) or cervical myelopathy / damage to the spinal cord in the cervical spine].
- Health check
Square brackets [ ] indicate possible pathological (pathological) physical findings.
