Kunitachi Ozawa Acupuncture Clinic.

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Case Reports

症例報告
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my shoulders are cracking up.

main symptoms

stiff neck and shoulders.
his neck felt very stiff, and the symptoms worsened when he used a pc at work all day.
when he started to feel stiffness, he started to hear a cracking sound when he turned his shoulders.
there is no pain caused by the cracking sound, but since he started feeling stiffness in his neck and shoulders, the sound only occurs when he turns his left shoulder, which bothers him.
there are no subjective symptoms due to the gurgling sound, but it has been bothering me for a long time, so he came to the clinic hoping to improve it while treating his stiff neck and shoulders.

visual observation and palpation

on visual observation, swelling was observed in the neck and shoulders.
there was a difference in the height of the right and left shoulder blade

visual observation and palpation

on visual observation, swelling was observed in the neck and shoulders. there was a difference in the height of the right and left shoulder blades.

treatment area:
neck → platysma, levator scapulae muscle, and semispinalis capitis muscle
shoulder → trapezius muscle
back → rhomboid muscle
scapulae → infraspinatus muscle and deltoid muscle

1st treatment: the stiffness after the treatment improved significantly. however, it returned to normal about 2 days after the treatment.
5th treatment: the feeling of stiffness improved after the treatment, and then returned to normal 2-3 days later.
8th treatment: gradually, the symptoms began to improve for 5 to 7 days after the treatment.
10th treatment: the stiffness in the neck and shoulders will improve, and at the same time, the cracking in the shoulders will decrease.
12th treatment: neck and shoulder stiffness has been getting better lately. the gurgling becomes much less frequent.

symptoms seem to have disappeared after a few treatments.

Summary

cracking sound in the shoulder

for example, many people have a cracking sound in their hip joints or knees when they squat.
in the case of the shoulder joint, it is the joint with the maximum range of motion due to the ligaments, so it is fixed by the inner muscles while being lightly supported by the ligaments rather than tightly by the ligaments.
it is a special joint that needs to move well, so it is stabilized by muscles rather than by ligaments.
the so-called inner muscle is called the rotator cuff, which consists of four muscles: (1) infraspinatus, (2) supraspinatus, (3) teres minor, and (4) subscapularis.
the rotator cuff is the muscle that supports the shoulder joint, so if any one of these muscles becomes weak, normal joint movement will not be possible.
frozen shoulders are often caused by the deterioration of one of these muscles.

in many cases, trigger points are formed in one of these four muscles in people who have a cracking shoulder.
it is important to (1) adjust the left-right difference of the shoulder blades, (2) remove the trigger points in the four muscles, and (3) treat neck stiffness and shoulder stiffness as well.

the shoulder blade is a bone that floats and has a lot of muscles attached to it.
it is important to treat the trigger points of each of them.
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