Loss of Motion

The Shoulder: Arthrofibrosis and Loss of Motion

Combing your hair. Brushing your teeth. Serving a tennis ball. All of these arm movements require a full range of motion in the shoulder joint.

The shoulder has many different components, including the glenohumeral joint, which allows the arm to be raised, lowered, and moved away from and toward the body. People don't often think about normal shoulder motion until it is impaired by surgery or adhesive capsulitis, also known as “frozen shoulder.” According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, frozen shoulder affects about 2 percent of the general population.

Following injury or surgery, patients often develop arthrofibrosis in the shoulder - an abnormal growth of fibrous “scar tissue” around the joint - which leads to loss of motion.

“Studies have shown that motion gains in abduction also result in increased motion in other ways, including overhead and forward reach.”

Mark S. Albert, M.Ed., P.T., A.T.C., S.C.S

Treatment

The Shoulder: Motion Without Surgery

Loss of motion isn’t unusual in the first few weeks after surgery. But as many as 30 percent of patients suffer from activity-limiting motion loss well beyond a few weeks.

Historically, there have been two options available to treat severe motion loss — manipulation under anesthesia and surgical scar tissue removal — and both require expensive and risky hospital operating room procedures.

With mechanical therapy using ERMI devices, patients avoid these interventions all together. Working at home, a patient can stretch out even the stiffest shoulder with rapid, lasting results.

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Products

The Shoulder: In-Home Therapy Products

The ERMI Shoulder Flexionater relies on the ERMI Patient-Actuated Serial Stretch or PASS protocol, coupling periods of stretch with periods of relaxation for optimal therapy.

ERMI Shoulder Flexionater
The vast majority of shoulder surgery, motion deficits and arthrofibrosis occur in and around the glenohumeral joint. The ERMI Shoulder Flexionater is designed to first improve external rotation and then abduction. An anti-rotation bar keeps the patient in place while working external rotation. A pad on top of the shoulder keeps the joint in place while working abduction, and pad across the blocks the patient from raising the shoulder while using the device. By isolating the glenohumeral joint, the device allows maximum external rotation to 60 degrees and abduction to 90 degrees.

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